


Resistance, New York

by captainsandsoldiers



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, M/M, also ben and rey are not related, my descriptions are garbage (sorry)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-11 15:23:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 45,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5631427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainsandsoldiers/pseuds/captainsandsoldiers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>So many plants. Rey took a deep breath of the clean, springey air as she sized up the trees that one could see behind the house. They were huge, old and strong looking. She was so unused to so much green. Back home in Arizona, the prevailing type of plant was desert scrub, springing out of the bleached or orange sand and dry dirt. It was always sunny and nearly always hot. Her own even tan reflected this. New York’s Hudson Valley was practically another planet....</i> </p><p>High school AU. Rey Walker, an average mechanics tinkering, fencing loving 17 year old moves in with her adopted aunt, Maz, after trouble back home across the country in Arizona. Resistance, New York, is a funny little town on the Hudson River Valley whose residents Rey soon gets to know. All your TFA favorites come alive as 21st century small town high school kids - Finn Trooper is a friendly, photography loving junior, Poe Dameron is golden-boy baseball jock, Ben Solo is a sensitive, sullen artist... plus more. Ben(Kylo) x Rey, Finn x Poe. - NOW COMPLETE!!!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day One, Hour One

**Author's Note:**

> Yep, I'm that person. Writing the modern high school AU. Partially inspired by some fan art from Tumblr. Please kudos/comment if you enjoyed. New chapters coming soon because I actually wrote somewhat ahead this time. Stayed tuned for Chapter 2 where we get to meet even MORE of your favs. 
> 
> (Note: Rey and Ben/Kylo aren't related in this AU.)

Chapter 1 - Day One, Hour One

Rey Walker stood at the edge of the gravel driveway, staring at the front of her new house. It was a big old looking place, whose exterior was made of slats of grey wood. The trimmings and the doorway were all black, giving the house a sort of gloomy covering, which was contrasted by the bright colors of flowers that spilled out of every window box, practically exploding with blooms as it was spring. They were not particularly neatly trimmed, like the bushes by the front door or the grass in the front yard, but they gave the old looking house a bit of much needed life. 

So many plants. Rey took a deep breath of the clean, springey air as she sized up the trees that one could see behind the house. They were huge, old and strong looking. She was so unused to so much green. Back home in Arizona, the prevailing type of plant was desert scrub, springing out of the bleached or orange sand and dry dirt. It was always sunny and nearly always hot. Her own even tan reflected this. New York’s Hudson Valley was practically another _planet._

Even her clothing was different than she’d usually wear this time of year. Shorts were requisite most months to deal with the heat, but now she’d had to put on jeans and a olive green jacket and boots. Back home, this was her winter attire. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear that had come loose from her ponytail, and started at the door, wondering how embarrassing it might be to be late on your first day at a new school.

Just as she thought this, the black door of the house burst open, sending the brass door knocker swinging to make a thunk sound on its own, as a tiny figure exited, looking flustered.

“All set?” the person said, standing at the top of the steps and smiling broadly at Rey. Maz, her aunt - adopted aunt - was a funny looking woman. She was very small and complimented her own little face with an enormous pair of thick, round glasses, making her look a bit like a bug. She had big brown eyes a small, smushed nose, and her lips were thin and puckered with age. Wearing a navy turtleneck and a brown thermal vest, she started down the steps and toward Rey with her necklace of big, chunky beads swinging. Frankly, old Max looked more like a librarian than a restaurant owner, but that just went to show that you should never judge based on appearances. 

“I guess,” Rey said, shifting her weight to her other foot and adjusting the strap of her backpack on her shoulder. “As ready as I could be…”

“You’ll be all good, hon,” Aunt Maz said, waving a tiny wizened hand to dispel Rey’s worries. “Let’s get this show on the road!”

They climbed into her Aunt’s old, enormous station wagon, clearly a model from before Rey was even born. Aunt Maz adjusted the rearview and briefly examined herself in it before turning the keys in the ignition. She looked funny, this tiny woman in this big old car, with her greying, frizzy orange hair pulled back tightly in a headband. 

“RHS will be a good place for you, I think,” Aunt Maz continued to narrate as she pulled out of her driveway and started down the woodsy road in her thick New York accent. “I went there, your mother went there - it’s got a long history in our family!”

Rey said nothing. She did not want to think about her parents right now. Her adopted parents, that is - Rey had no idea who her real parents were and she never wondered much about it. She was born in Arizona and adopted there. Life was good - for some time. But things were not so good lately. Her father’s layoff, the possible foreclosure, and finally, the divorce… she had to get away, with all honesty. And her parents put up little argument. They knew she’d been put through enough.

“You been through the ringer, kid - but don’t worry, Resistance is gonna treat you good!”

Aunt Maz grinned her little teeth at her adopted niece as she vocalized what Rey had just been thinking, and Rey gave a small smile back. She still could not get over the fact that town was named Resistance. Resistance, New York. She’d been told the story of why it was named that way - originally set up as an outpost during the Revolutionary War, hence the name. But she still found it peculiar to be heading to a place called Resistance High School.

They drove down the hilly, winding roads around town, passing houses of all different sizes and states, through forested areas and by fields. Downtown Resistance was not much of a downtown. This was the type of town that had what people called a “main drag”, the one road that ran through town center around which most restaurants, shops and so on were centered. Aunt Maz’s bar war there - The Cantina. Supposedly a beloved local spot, Rey had yet to visit. Everything had happened so fast. Rey had only had a week to get unpacked, move in, and get ready for school until RHS’ spring break ended and it was time to go to class. So there she was, on that first Monday. Nerves bubbled up in her stomach.

“Thanks, Aunt Maz…” Rey said, taking a breath. Her aunt gave a happy little smile as they pulled onto another road, and flipped on the radio. A energetic classic rock song ended, and a DJ’s voice came through.

“ _Gooooood morning Resistance!_ ” The masculine, laid back voice said. “ _It’s an absolutely beautiful day here in the Hudson hills. We’re gonna have a high of 60, what a treat, and that sun should continue on for the rest of the week before we get some rain toward the end of the week, Thursday and Friday - 40% chance. So, stick around, leave the radio on, soak up some sun… I’ll be here as always. After the next few tracks, we have - current events! Traffic! Sports! And an interview with a special Resistance resident... I won’t give much away now, but you’re gonna wanna hear this. This is your host, Han Solo, on 103.3 - THE FALCON!_ ”

A new, guitar heavy song began right after, but Rey was only half paying attention to the energetic radio host with the funny name, because she spotted the busy bus loop and large, beige buildings that were Resistance High School up ahead, on top of a big hill. 

Aunt Maz had dropped her off right in front of the main entrance, which was currently milling with students - getting off buses, talking, energetically greeting each other and discussing what they had done over break. She knew this was a smaller school than the one she’d come from back home, but she still felt momentarily overwhelmed by all the new faces, none of which really paid her much attention. Taking another deep breath, she made her way purposefully toward the front entrance, toward two pairs of dark blue double doors. 

Greeted with another long hallway, she paused momentarily just in the exit to look at the scene before her. Two sets of stairs were on either side of the entrance area, which some students walked up and down. Directly ahead was a long hallway lined with dark blue lockers and again, more students and teachers. She was greeted with the typical sounds of a busy high school, slamming locker doors, squeaks of shoes, babble of voices. A very large banner hung at the entrance to the long hallway. Painted in big letters were the words “GO REBELS!” and on the far left, a caricature of a Revolutionary war era soldier, tricorn hat and all, lined up with a baseball bat to receive a pitch. 

So that was the big sport here. A quick scan of the surroundings had pointed Rey toward the main office, another blue door with a row of windows beside it, showing a small but busy office. She slid out of the crowd and made her way for it.

The inside of the main office was quieter and smelled like coffee. Rey passed a row of teacher mailboxes and a chair where a student currently sat, to the desk of the school registrar. 

“Hello,” she said, clearing her throat. “I”m Rey Walker - I’m… new.” 

It sounded silly to say, but the woman behind the desk, a skinny, grey haired woman in her 50s, nodded quickly. She looked behind Rey and waved for someone to approach.

“Here’s your RHS welcome guide,” she said, giving Rey a smile and gesturing to someone. That person walked right up to the desk - the boy who had been sitting in a chair by the mailboxes, who Rey did not notice much upon entering.

“Hi!” he said, giving her a friendly smile. “I’m Finn, your guide. I have all your stuff, your schedule and all that. Welcome!”

He was a friendly looking teenage boy, about Rey’s height, with short black hair, dark skin and a flat, broad nose. His teeth which he was baring in his smile were very white, and he wore a denim jacket and loafers. 

“Didn’t know you guys had that here,” Rey said, for loss of anything better to say. “I”m Rey Walker.”

"Nice to meet you,” the boy said, shifting his weight to his other foot. “Yeah, they put a big emphasis on making new people feel welcome. Come on, I’ll show you to your first class.”

They exited the office and Rey followed Finn out into the crowded hall, as he gave her a bunch of papers. Schedule, map, student handbook, teacher directory, the usual pertinent information. 

“We’re headed of US History, see, here, room 207?” Finn said, pointing to the location on the map, which had been circled. “It’s a pretty good class. I circled all your classrooms for you so hopefully you won’t get too lost - I wrote my number on the back though, just in case you do. I’ll show you where your locker is after this class, we don’t have quite the time to get there now.”

Rey smiled at him and nodded, feeling thankful that the school had such an efficient infrastructure in place for new students. It took the load off of her a little bit. 

“That’s really nice of you, thanks,” she replied gratefully. 

“So, where did you move from?” 

“Arizona. I, uh, moved up here to live with my aunt.” 

Finn didn’t ask any prying questions, which Rey was thankful for. She didn’t really feel like explaining that she was an adopted kid from a broken home for whom this new place was an escape.

“That’s cool. I’ve lived here all my life, never even been to the West Coast,” Finn explained as they got onto a staircase at the end of the hallway, crowded with students.

“It’s, um, hot.” Rey explained awkwardly. Finn chuckled.

“Just through here. Hm, what else to tell you about this place….”

He smiled at her. 

“Honestly, not much. I see you’re signed up for auto shop class, that’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah…” Rey said, glancing down at her schedule to locate the class on the list. It was the last class of the day, in somewhere labeled BASEMENT 3. “I like fixing stuff. Taking it apart. All that.”

“That’s really cool. I can’t even change a spare tire. That’s down in the basement, by the way, by the black box theatre and the art room.”

Rey chuckled. They arrived at a classroom, and Finn held the door open for Rey. She walked into a slowly filling room. 

“That’s Mr. Threepio,” Finn informed her quietly as they walked in. “Pretty nice dude. A British guy teaching American History - funny, right?”

Mr. Threepio was seated at his desk. He was a tall and completely bald, clean shaven man, with a shiny head, a yellow tie, and thick eyebrows. Finn walked up to him introduced Rey.

“Ah, welcome!” Mr. Threepio said in a crisp British accent. “Here is your syllabus. I hope you can adjust quickly to our curriculum. Please, do see me if you require any extra assistance.”

Rey smiled at him, and Finn helped her find a desk nearby to his own. He slid his messenger bag off his shoulder and took off his denim jacket.

“I won’t be at your next class with you, Physics, I think, but we do have the same lunch period. Find me by the caf entrance.” he told her. 

“Sure, thanks!” Rey said cheerfully, feeling relieved that the horror of the first lunch in a new school would be lessened by the fact that she already had someone to eat with. She wondered how much of this was Finn’s friendliness, and how much was his welcome guide duties. But she was thankful. 

As she settled into her desk, the sound of a pencil beside her falling caught her attention. Looking over, she realized it had slid of the neighboring desk. She leaned over and picked it up.

The occupant of the desk was looking at her as he did so. She held out the pencil to the person - a very tall boy with thick, long black hair. He was wearing dark colored jeans and a charcoal grey long sleeved shirt, and he was sort of slouched over a small leather bound notebook. 

“Thanks,” he said quietly, looking her up and down for a split second and not smiling. He turned back to his notebook, which she realized he had been sketching in, without saying anything else. He did not ask for her name or introduce himself. Rey watched him for a second as he hunched over the work, his lanky frame folded up in his desk like it was a little small for him.

Before she could observe anything else, the teacher called the class to attention. So here it was. Day one, class one, hour one. Taking a deep breath, she straightened up at her desk and picked up her pen.

_So far, so good._


	2. The Cantina

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice long chapter for you! Leave kudos/comments x

Chapter 2 -The Cantina

Rey’s first three classes passed quickly. American History, Physics, Psychology - all the teachers seemed friendly enough and eager to help her adjust. Every class was a whirlwind of new faces, some of which stared at her and whispered, most of which paid her no heed. She preferred the latter. Right now, all she wanted to do was stay under the radar, and get this… quarter of a year going and gone. Then she could worry about other stuff. 

The walk to the cafeteria was a little nerve wracking. She had her backpack slung over her shoulder, containing a packed lunch from Aunt Maz whose contents she had no idea about. Aunt Maz was enthusiastic about packing it, claiming that never having children made her eager to try the “cliche kid raising things” she’d never gotten to do. Rey thought of her with a chuckle as she made her way to where she understood the caf was based on her map. Being that new kid with her nose in a map - speaking of cliches. 

It was a relief to hear her name being called and spotting Finn by the entrance, waving a hand at her and smiling.

“Alright, you made it!” he said in greeting. 

“Somehow,” she replied, smiling back.

She followed him in and to find a table, which was already populated with a few of his own friends, all seemingly like nice, friendly people like himself. Telling her he was going to buy lunch, he left her alone for a few minutes, which gave her the opportunity to check out her surroundings. Unpacking her lunch, which was a square of lasagna in a tupperware container, an apple and a cookie, she took a swig from her water bottle as she looked around at the student body currently milling around the large room, which was populated by a large number of linoleum topped rectangular tables with benches. The plain grey walls were sometimes interrupted by posters for school events, clubs, another big “REBELS RULE!” banner with the baseball playing soldier, and some anti drug and drinking propaganda. 

The students at RHS were not small town bumpkin types as her friends back in Arizona had joked about. If that even existed. They looked like just normal kids at a normal school, talking and eating their lunches. Her eyes slid from one crowded able to a full one, and so on and so forth. 

She did notice one face turned toward her, at a table occupied by only two people. It was the pale face of the very tall boy from her first class, who had dropped his pencil - he was watching her now. She could make out a little bit more about his face from the few moments before he looked away - he had a long, angular face that was growing into manhood, and a rather large nose that took up much of it. His choppy dark hair was pushed off his face, and again, he looked away quickly without so much as a smile. His companion had his back to Rey, all she could make out was that he was wearing a black jacket, and had bright red hair. 

Brushing the odd moment off, Rey kept looking, till her eyes settled on the table directly to the left of the one she was sitting at. This was the closest thing to a “jock table” that one could call it. All the boys sitting here, with a few girls, looked athletic and well built, and the whole table seemed to be talking spiritedly, in a good mood. Rey’s eyes were drawn to a boy who was approaching the table with a lunch tray. The people at the table greeted him enthusiastically, and he flashed them a dashing grin.

He looked a bit like what a jock in a 90s teen movie might look like - handsome, with a movie star like haircut of shiny, black waves. His angular face was lit up in a self assured smile, he was wearing a navy blue letterman jacket with grey sleeves over a white t shirt, and his skinny jeans were rolled up over black high top sneakers. Rey watched, rather, stared, as he took his seat among his athletic friends. 

“Checking someone out?” Finn’s voice said above her, causing her to return to earth. She quickly slid down the bench to give him some room.

“Um, just looking around,” she lied, peeking back at the attractive boy at the next table.

Finn smirked. 

“That’s Poe Dameron and some of the other jocks, in case you were wondering,” he told her, sitting down and screwing the lid off his orange juice bottle.

“Football?”

“Nah, baseball’s our big sport.”

Pretty obvious, she thought now, considering the big banners. She busied herself with opening her tupperware. 

“Ah, right. He’s…”

“Yeah.” Finn finished, glancing over at the attractive boy and chewing on his lower lip.

She chuckled nervously, appreciating his good humor. They started a conversation about their hobbies and lives. Rey found out that Finn had just recently gotten his license and his car, which he was excited about. He loved music and photography, and was head of photography for the school paper, the Rebel Press. He had two younger sisters and lived pretty close to where Rey did. About herself, she told him that her main hobbies were tinkering with mechanical stuff, taking apart things and so on, and fencing. 

Leaving her fencing club behind was one of the more painful things about moving. She trained at a big gym back home, and did all sorts of local competitions. Right now, her foils were sitting in the corner of her room, and her big gym bag of pads and so on were in the closet, gathering dust. She was very eager to find someone to fight.

“We definitely don’t have a fencing team at school,” Finn told her helpfully. “But you could check in town at the Y or check with the county about local teams. Sucks about leaving your team behind, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she told him, making a mental note to do so later on. “I’ll see what I can do. You do any sports?”

“Um, I ride my bike? No, I’m not like all the Andy Clarkes over here,” he replied, pointing his thumb at that table to their left, referencing the jock character from The Breakfast Club. He gave her a small smile. 

They talked more about town and made plans to hang out some time, so Rey could get to know everywhere a bit better. Rey left lunch with high spirits. She did not imagine things to be going so well on her first day. Her afternoon classes passed in a whirlwind, down to auto shop in the basement. Down in this hallway, one could also find the art room, which was down another mini hallway that was covered in murals. There was also the small theatre; a bulletin board beside the door held posters for upcoming productions. All in all, everything was just very normal. Rey was internally relieved. 

Aunt Maz told her she would meet her outside the basement entrance at the end of school, so Rey, after finishing up in shop and making sure she had everything she needed in her backpack, she pushed her way through one of the heavy double doors that opened to the crisp spring weather outside, and sat herself on one of the steps. In front of her was an extension of the bus loop, and to the right, a fence that separated the main school grounds from the track field, and baseball diamond. She watched passing kids head toward the sports grounds, carrying gym bags or wearing athletic shorts, feeling guilty about her fencing. 

She rested her palms on her knees, meditating on the events of the day. One day at a time, that was the plan she had formulated on the plane over here. Pulling out her phone, she sent a cheerful “Everything’s good!” text to each of her parents back home. This was day one, and it ended with relative success, she felt. Rey still felt a bit like an alien among the lush greenery and coolness of Resistance, but now that she had faced school, she felt a little better.

Just as she was thinking these things, the door behind her opened, and she turned to see that exciting was the tall, long haired boy from earlier. He paused for a second, seeing her, and then took a step forward and sat himself down on the other edge of the stair. 

“Are you following me?” Rey said, taking a stab at humor as she watched him. He was now wearing a slim, dark blue bomber jacket. Seeing his feet now, she saw that he had on chunky black boots. 

Following the statement, he gave her a look, not registering much emotion, not even a smile. He looked back away and busied himself with unwrapping a pair of earbuds from a ball that he’d pulled from his pocket. Rey sat there, feeling a bit like chopped liver, until she heard a honk - Aunt Maz’s huge station wagon had pulled in. Without another word, she got to her feet and swung her backpack over her shoulder, headed for the car.

As she approached the car, Aunt Maz lowered the passenger seat and called across the path.

“Ben Solo, is that you? Hello!” she said loudly, adjusting her glasses and waving cheerfully at the sullen dark clothed boy still sitting on the step. Rey looked back to see him watching the big car, and he gave a small wave.

“Tell your father I say hello!” Aunt Maz continued, as Rey got into the car and shut the door. “This is my niece, Rey, by the way!” 

Rey, buckling her seatbelt, peeked over to see the boy still watching them. He gave a single nod. 

“He’s grown so much,” her aunt observed as they pulled away. “Why, he’s got to be much taller than Han, by now.”

“Who?” Rey asked, just to be polite and make conversation. So, the silent boy had a name - Ben. 

“An old friend of mine - Han Solo, remember, he’s the DJ on the radio! That’s his son there, Ben. I’ve known his family for a great many years.”

Rey nodded slowly, thinking of the boy’s angular face and long hair. 

“So, how was school?”

Rey told her aunt brief details about her first day - meeting Finn, that all her classes were good, and so on. Her Aunt was happily enthusiastic about this, as they travelled to the local office supply to pick up supplies for school according to Rey’s new syllabuses. Once they finished and pulled out of the local strip mall, Aunt Maz asked if Rey was hungry.

“How about some dinner?” she proposed enthusiastically. “You haven’t seen the Cantina yet!”

So off they were back to the town center, which was gently sloping portion of Maple Street. Based on her brief glimpse, Rey could see a lot of different shops - a bookstore, a record shop, a few clothing places and restaurants with outdoor seating, but it was cut off when her Aunt pulled of Maple to drive into a parking lot behind a main strip of shops. “RESERVED PARKING - MANAGEMENT ONLY” said the spot she pulled into. Aunt Maz led Rey toward a back entrance, smiling. 

“Meet my pride and joy,” she told her as they walked in through the back entrance, a glass door with white lettering on it - _The Cantina Bar & Grille - Please wipe your feet. _“I never had kids, but I had her!”

As they emerged from the dim back hallway with the kitchen doors and the bathrooms, Rey got her view of the Cantina. A space shaped like a semicircle, the bar/grille was rimmed with booths along the curved wall, and the bar along the straight one, with some tables in between The theme of the place seemed to be retro scifi - posters and art from old space action flicks and pulp books hung on the walls, embracing their campy style and imagery. The booths were all diner style shiny red plastic. Hanging above each booth was a light fixture shaped like a planet. The back of the bar, which had a huge mirror along the wall, held a shelf with perhaps 100 lava lamps of different colors and sizes, all glowing and pulsating organically above the shelf of liquor bottles. The ceiling was coated from wall to wall in glow in the dark paint spots, making it feel like you were above the night sky. It was not too crowded at this lull between meals, but Rey could imagine the place pulsing with activity. 

“Wow,” she said, smiling at the place, which she found incredibly cool. “This looks great.”

Her Aunt gave her another broad smile with her thin lips, and they sat down at a booth. On the wall next to it was a framed newspaper page from a paper called the Roswell Daily Record. “RAAF CATCHES FLYING SAUCER IN ROSWELL REGION” blared the headline. 

“Hey, Maz!” a cheerful young waiter said as he approached the table, placing a menu in front of Rey. 

“Hello,” Aunt Maz said to her employee, as she adjusted her turtleneck collar. “This is my niece, Rey.”

The waiter, a blonde haired man in his early 20s, smiled at Rey, introducing himself as Jack. 

“The usual for me, Jack, and get the young woman whatever she wants…”

After Rey had ordered a soda and one of the dishes on the menu, which all had fun, space themed names, the two of them sat and chatted about town, school, and the restaurant. Rey thought it was a super cool place. 

“Yes, I have students from your school coming in here almost every afternoon,” Aunt Maz informed her, taking a sip from her Cherry coke. “The baseball jocks, the nerdy kids, the theatre posse - all sorts!”

Rey chuckled to herself at her Aunt’s use of the antiquated labels. 

“It’s certainly a spot,” she replied with a smile, as her Aunt proudly looked around the place. Someone coming from the back hallway caught her eye, and she waved them over enthusiastically.

“Han!” she said cheerfully. “You didn’t tell me you were here!”

Rey looked up, to find a tall older man approaching their table, smiling and chuckling at her tiny Aunt. 

“Just grabbing a quick drink, Maz, I was on my way out,” he said, stepping up to their table

“I just met your son when I was picking up Rey here - he looks so tall now! Oh, Rey, this is my old friend, Han Solo.”

Han Solo was a trim man in his fifties, wearing a white button down shirt over jeans and black sportcoat. Despite the age lines in his face and salt and pepper hair, he looked like a man who once possessed a rugged sort of attractiveness. He held out a big hand to Rey and gave her a crooked sort of half smile, and they shook.

“Pleased to meet ya.” he said in a low, familiar voice. The DJ from the radio, Rey reminded herself. 

“This is my niece, Rey. She just moved up here with me, and she’s going to school with your Ben.”

“We seem to have first period together,” Rey said, feeling as if she should speak. Han chuckled, resting a hand on his hip.

“Surprised you actually got him to talk, Maz!” he said, grinning at the old woman.

“I don’t know if he actually vocalized…” the older woman said cheerfully. “But I did get a wave out of him. You know how teenagers are.”

Han smirked and winked at Rey

“Well, I’m glad he remembered some of how we raised him….you know, me and your Aunt go way back.” 

“Ah, you make me feel old,” Aunt Maz said with a wave of her hand. “We won’t keep you much longer. See you around, Han.”

“Take care of yourselves, then,” Han Solo replied, smiling crookedly at them both, and giving the tabletop a knock, departed. 

“There goes a true town legend,” Rey’s aunt told her knowingly. “See how well connected your aunt is, Rey?”

Rey chuckled. She glanced behind her to see the man in question exiting the bar and walking down Maple Street. If she thought about it, she could see similarities in the faces of him and his son, but that was about it. Han Solo seemed so friendly and charming. His son? Not so much.


	3. Milkshakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Rey bond, and little Poe Dameron being handsome for you. Plus, revelations about Ben Solo...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the good responses! Leave kudos/comments if you're enjoying so far, and check back tomorrow for chapter 4.

It was an unseasonably warm day, a few weeks later, when Finn and Rey met up after school to study together. Sitting on a wooden picnic table near to the path that led down the hill to the track and the baseball diamond, their books and papers were spread across the tabletop. Finn, who had taken off his denim jacket to feel the warm sun on his dark arms, rested his chin on a hand as he bent over a textbook, reciting important hallmarks of Eisenhower’s presidency.

“Ugh,” he said after a moment of faltering on his memorization. “There’s no way I can remember all this.”

“You almost got it,” Rey said gently. “It was the Federal Aid Highway Act of ‘56.” 

She herself was greatly enjoying the warmth, as it was what she was more used to. Adjusting her sunglasses on her face, she smiled encouragingly at her friend. 

“Right.” he muttered, running a hand back across the thick dark hair on his head. Rey noticed him looking up after this at whoever was coming down the path behind them, from school. Rey turned her head to look back. 

Coming down the path toward the field at the bottom of the hill was a large group of baseball players, in uniform - in this school, grey pants with dark blue jerseys that read “REBELS” across the chest in curvy lettering. Some were carrying bats, and others gloves, and they were talking amongst one another cheerfully. In front of her, Finn quickly swiped his digital camera from next to him.

“Yo, team captain!” he called, as the group made their way past their table. “How about a photo of you all for the _Press?_ Middle of spring training, and all.” 

He was referring to the school paper. The player in question looked at Finn when he called- it was Poe Dameron. Up close, his boyish good looks were even more evident. He looked amongst his teammates. They all seemed to agree that it wasn’t a bad idea, and Poe looked back at Finn with a grin and a nod.

“Why not?” he asked. “Alright, get around…”

Rey watched with interest as the group of athletic boys in their matching uniforms lined up against the view of the baseball diamond downhill. Some assumed funny poses, standing with their chests thrown out and crossed arms with goofy grins, some jokingly flexed their arm muscles or did comical model poses. In the center of it all, Poe Dameron, team captain. He put one hand on his hip and the other on his bat, which he stuck against the ground like a fancy cane. With his Ray Bans and shiny hair, he looked like something out of a movies; like he owned the world.

Finn quickly hopped around the table and climbed onto the bench beside Rey, bending his knees slightly to get a good angle. _Click, click, click._

“Think I got it, thanks, guys!” he called, smiling at the group of boys and hopping back onto the ground, who laughed at one another’s comical poses and broke, starting back down the hill again. Poe swung his bat up and rested it against his shoulder.

“Still always got the camera, don’t you?” he asked Finn, smiling. 

“Someone’s gotta do it,” Finn replied after a pause. The two boys looked at each other without saying anything for a moment. There was a funny tension in the air. Finn cleared his throat.

“Um, this is Rey, she’s new.”

Poe turned his dark eyes on Rey and gave her a friendly look.

“I’m Poe.”

“So I’ve heard,” Rey called back, momentarily dazzled. “Nice to meet you. Good luck at practice!”

The handsome team captain smiled once more at them, and gave them a tight salute, before turning back around and jogging down the hill to catch up with his teammates. Rey couldn’t help herself but to watch the way his lower body muscles moved as he ran. She chuckled to herself and looked up at Finn, who was examining the pictures he just took on the little screen on his camera.

“These are great…” he mused. “This is front page stuff.”

“Uh huh,” Rey said, a tiny bit of amusement in her voice. “Wanna explain what just happened there?”

“Me doing my job?”

“No, I mean, that moment after that….”

He blinked, looking away.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said stiffly, returning to his seat and his textbook. Rey smirked.

“Right.”

She looked back down at the notes in front of her, letting it hang in the air and repressing her own smile. 

“There wasn’t any _moment_ …” Finn said, partially to himself, as he frowned at his textbook. “Come on, let’s pack it up and get some milkshakes. I’m really over Eisenhower’s presidency.”

Rey shrugged and nodded, and commenced with stuffing her things back into her bag.

“I don’t know,” she said delicately. “But I think there’s something you’re not telling me. Did you guys used to date, or-”

“No, don’t be ridiculous,” Finn replied quickly, stuffing his textbook into his bag with a bit more violence than usual. “No way, I mean, look at…” 

He gestured randomly to the field, then to himself. Rey shrugged. 

“You’re pretty cute, what’s the problem?” she asked innocently, slinging her backpack around her shoulder. Finn sighed, giving her a grudging smile. They started back up the hill toward the student parking lot.

“We’re not from the same planet, I’ll put it like that.”

Rey nodded slowly. He took a breath and continued.

“If you wanna know the whole story, we used to be really close. Like this,” he said, holding up the pointer fingers of both his hands and holding them pressed together. “All the way through like, freshman year. He used to be my neighbor and stuff, so we’d hang out and all that. But ah… life happened, I guess. He found baseball and his friends and I found… well, we started to move in different circles. Cut to two years later and boom, you got people who barely make eye contact in the hallway. Typical high school bullshit.”

“Oh,” Rey said softly. “...would you want to be friends again?”

“I don’t think that’s possible.” he replied darkly. “For one, I don’t know if we have anything in common any more. Plus… honestly, I don’t see him... he wouldn’t… see me like I see him. You know what I mean?”

Rey nodded slowly. She understood enough. Unrequited attraction was the suckiest thing in the universe, after getting your heart broken, she reasoned. 

“Plus, I’m not the only one looking. I mean, have you seen that kid? He’s half a goddamn Greek god at this place. People worship him.”

“He sure looks like one…” Rey observed, picturing the dashing looking young man in her mind. Finn smirked with a certain tang of bitterness to it. They arrived at Finn’s car, a used red mid 00s four door handed down from his parents. Rey got in the passenger seat as Finn opened the trunk to toss in his backpack.

“Accurate assessment, sister…” he said, as he slid into the passenger seat. He pulled some sunglasses from the console compartment and smiled at Rey before he put them on. 

“Thanks for caring,” he said quietly. “I don’t… think I’ve ever told anyone that. Keep it on the down-low, if you can.”

“Of course,” she replied, grinning back. “Your secret is safe with me. And your dirty laundry.”

Finn chuckled, sliding on his sunglasses and turning the key in the ignition. 

“Let’s get those damn milkshakes.” 

 

Sitting at the tall tables against the window of a local ice cream shop in downtown Resistance, Finn was showing Rey the latest copy of the of the Rebel Press. 

“As you can see, thrilling stuff in here,” he said sarcastically. “I’d say it's a pretty popular paper around the school, because god knows everyone needs constant spring training updates…” 

Rey chuckled, looking at the front page of the regular paper sized publication. 

“Do you have a big staff?”

“Just the people in the paper club. Not many. But anyone could submit an article if they wanted. Why, you interested?”

“No, just wondering. I need to get back on with this curriculum before I think about clubs.”

“Any luck with fencing?” Finn asked, sipping on his chocolate shake, as Rey continued to peruse the paper, which was mostly reports on rather mundane school events - new teachers, students making achievements, reviews of movies and books and safe little editorials on current events. 

She shook her head.

“I don’t think there’s any local rec leagues,” she explained. “I’ll keep digging. Otherwise, I’m just gonna have to go without…”

A small section at the bottom of one of the later pages caught her eye. A small photo of a tall boy standing next to an artwork sat next to a tiny little report, with the headline “ _RHS Student Wins County Art Competition._ ” The boy in the photo was unmistakably Ben Solo. She had not had any run ins with him in the few weeks since she’d come to school there. He sat beside her in American History but kept to himself. She couldn’t recall him ever raising his hand. Rey only ever saw him wearing dark colors, either staring out the window with his earbuds in or scratching in his little Moleskine sketchbook. 

Rey read the piece, which succinctly explained Ben’s achievement, a piece of art by him taking first place in a local art competition. The photo was too small to make out much of the artwork, but his tall, lanky form was there beside it. He looked at the camera with a neutral expression on, his hands in his pockets.

“My aunt is always asking me about him,” she commented, pointing to the feature. “Because she’s good friends with his dad. I don’t know how to tell her that I’ve literally never spoken with him.”

“Who? Oh, yeah… I mean, he’s pretty cute but damn is he quiet. He’s kind of a weird guy. I don’t think I’ve ever talked to him either.” Finn replied, looking at the piece. 

“Hm.”

“You wouldn’t expect him to be the kid of the Han Solo and the town mayor.”

Rey raised her eyebrows. She took a sip of her strawberry milkshake.

“The mayor?”

“Yeah, Leia Solo, you didn’t know that? She’s been the mayor of Resistance for a long time now. Pretty cool lady. And she’s married to Han, whose like, everyone’s go to source in town. My parents listen to him on the radio every day.”

“Oh….” Rey said softly, looking back down to the picture.

“He could be really popular, if he wanted, I guess…” Finn postulated. 

“No kidding.”

“You can keep that if you want. You gonna let me profile you for the paper, or not?”

Rey chocked a bit on her milkshake. Finn laughed.

“Okay, geez, don’t kill yourself. Only if you want.”

“ _Profile me?_ ” she asked after her eyes had finally stopped watering. 

“Yeah, you want to? It would just be one of the feature girls asking you some canned questions about how you like RHS. Standard procedure. I’d take a nice picture of you and stuff. Everyone knows old Maz so they’d be interested.”

Rey thought about it. She figured she didn’t have much to lose and gave him a nod.

“Why the hell not…” she said, smirking. 

“Alright! Your Rebel Press debut - and it’s all my doing. We’ll make it quick so it can be in next week’s issue.”

Finn grinned triumphantly, and took another sip of his milkshake. Rey smiled back, watching him. In his short sleeve button down shirt and sunglasses, he looked like he could fit in with the laid back kids back home in Arizona. She really enjoyed his presence.

“There goes my anonymity,” she joked. 

“You still got the pretty-tan-new-girl mystique, don’t worry.”

Rey grinned. So it would be.


	4. Simpler Times

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More developments between Finn and Poe, thanks to our little Rey - also, another TFA favorite makes an appearance!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the feedback and love so far - I'm so excited to keep sharing this story with you and am happy so many of you are into it. Here's a nice long chapter for you to chew on.  
> Those of you asking when more Ben/Rey is coming - SOON! Check back tomorrow and Friday for two chapters that will make you Reylo lovers very happy.
> 
> Leave comments/kudos x

Rey was sitting at the plain wooden dinner table in the kitchen of Aunt Maz’s house. In the weeks since she’d moved in, it felt more and more like a home. The kitchen itself was small, but warm feeling. Red checked curtains sat on either side of the single window, and the kitchen was filled with all sorts of funny knick knacks and kitchen supplies, so that it was evocative of an kitsch 50s diner. Aunt Maz’s obsession with sci-fi was evident even there - on the window sat a small figurine of the boy from E.T. riding his bike with the titular alien in the front basket, like on the iconic movie poster. 

Rey’s attention was on the latest addition of the Rebel Press. There she was, in her very own feature beneath the big picture of the baseball team that Finn had gotten on that one day. “NEW STUDENT PROFILE - Rey Walker”, said the headline, beside the small black and white photo of her. Finn had taken it. It was shoulders and up - she had her typical braid hanging over her shoulder and her olive green jacket, and was giving a small smile to the camera. She liked it, feeling it was a picture that captured her well.

 _Name: Rey Walker. Age & Grade: 17, Junior. Hometown: Morrison, Arizona. Interests & Hobbies: Mechanics, fencing… _Then there was a brief paragraph about her being related to Maz, and about her enjoying her time at RHS so far. It was brief, but it made her smile. _Thanks, Finn…_

“I’m real proud of you for making it into the paper!” Aunt Maz said from the sink. She was so small that she was barely tall enough to reach over it. “You know, I told you, I told you on your first day that you’d do great.”

She looked over and gave Rey a wizened little smile, which Rey returned with one of her soft, small ones. Thinking of her fencing things gathering dust upstairs, she laid the paper down and got to her feet, resolving to try to get out and practice a bit. Her aunt informed her that she was too going out and to not stay out too long in the cold.  
Once she’d retrieved her foil and a sweatshirt, she put on her sneakers and ambled into the long, woodsey backyard that was accessible through Maz’s sun porch. 

Bouncing the comfortable weight of the long, flexible weapon in her hand, she let it slide around the space between her finger and her thumb as she stared into the trees behind the house. There was a big wooded area behind her aunt’s place. Rey could not remember the last time she went hiking. She simply stood in front of the ridiculously tall trees, listening to the silence punctured only by the soft rustling of the leaves in the trees, and the distant birds singing. Something drew her.

Noting the small worn in foot path a few feet away, she started into the trees before she could stop herself. It was so quiet. Back home there just dry scrub, rocky outcrops in the distance, big slabs of sandstone. As she walked, she looked above her at the way the branches, budding and growing with new blooms, gently swayed and contrasted the ice chip blue of the sky. She felt the texture of the ground as it rose and fell, the path meandering gently around long fallen logs and boulders. She stepped over roots and small rocks, acorns, fallen branches, and soft dirt. The path moved with the earth, not through it, and the air was clean - so very clean.

She walked aimlessly this way until she could not see her house behind her any more - the forest had gotten too dense. It was a big blurry wall of green and brown, to Rey like some alien environment. But not scary or unpleasant. Simply different. Standing there in the trees, not being able to see any sign of life, she imagined herself for a moment as the only person on the planet. You couldn’t hear a car or another voice, just the trees and the wind and the chirping birds. She stared up at the sky this way for several moments, the breeze playing with the strands of hair that had gotten loose from her ponytail. 

The peaceful stillness of the moment was suddenly punctured by the sound of rustling in the distance, in some bushes. Rey looked back down, across, her attention caught. There was more rustling, and the sound of some footfalls hitting the ground. Rey held her foil up, squinting around and wondering whether it was some sort of animal, or another person. 

The thing had made the sound suddenly appeared in her line of vision. It scuttled along the path with its little feet and ran right up to Rey. She dropped her foil, feeling silly, because it was a small, squat little corgi dog. 

The little dog jumped up and down at her feet, excitement in its black eyes, its tongue wagging happily. It had the typical long body and short legs of a corgi and its fur was half orange and half white. Rey bent down to pet it, wondering how on earth a collared corgi could have appeared in the middle of the woods. She patted the excited little dog, looking up for some signs of a hiking owner, perhaps letting its dog off leash. But none showed.

“Where did you come from, little guy?” she asked softly, as the dog put its paws on her knee, wagging its stumpy tail. “Are you lost?”

She called out a hello to some possible owner, whoever had brought the dog into the woods, but only the silence of the trees and the panting of the animal at her feet greeted her. Bending down again, she lifted the collar slightly to check the tag. It was one of those little ones you could make from a machine in the pet store, along with a vaccine tag. 

_“Bee”_ said the name side, and the back read _“Found me?”_ , followed by a local address. Rey wondered if this was a lost dog. She had not seen any fliers around, but that wasn’t to say he hadn’t just now wandered off… so she was left with options. Rey looked down at the happy little thing, which was still looking up at her, happiness in its small face.  
“Guess you’re coming with me…” she muttered, getting to her feet. “Come on.”

Starting back down the forest path, she stuck her foil under her arm and pulled out her phone. Looking behind her to make sure the little dog was still following her, she searched her contacts. _Finn..._

“Hey, what’s up?” Finn’s friendly voice came through the other end. 

“Hey - do you know of any local lost dogs? I was walking in the woods behind my house and I stumbled across a dog with a collar but there’s nobody around… he’s got an address tag but no phone number.” 

“I don’t think so. What’s the address?” 

“3751 Elm Tree Avenue.” 

Rey heard what sounded like a sigh at the other end of the line. When Finn spoke again he sounded a bit apprehensive.

“It’s not a corgi, is it? White and orange, bit hyperactive?”

Rey looked at the dog, which had run ahead of her in the path, in surprise.

“That’s exactly it.”

“Right, I know whose dog that is.” Finn answered flatly. “Sit tight at home, I’ll come get you and we can drop it off.”

“Alright,” Rey replied after a pause. “Thanks a lot, I’m sure they’ll be really happy to get their dog back.”

“I’m sure. See you.”

The call ended. Rey put the phone in her pocket, wondering as to where this was and who owned the pup. It waddled ahead of her, looking back every so often as if to check if she was still following it, and not the other way around. She smirked at the little thing, finding it amusing. Swinging her foil around randomly, she caught sight of her house again, and started up the mild incline toward it.

Finn arrived pretty quickly, Rey hearing his arrival honk from inside the house. When she’d arrived home and sat down on the chair she’d been previously occupying, the little dog hopped onto her lap and promptly curled up. Chuckling, she rubbed it behind the ears, and once Finn arrived, lifted it in all its furriness with both arms, heading for the door.

After putting it into the backseat, she slid into the passenger and buckled up as Finn pulled out of Aunt Maz’s empty driveway.

“So who's dog is this?” she asked curiously, checking back to make sure it was okay. The corgi - its name was Bee, as it seems, was sitting contentedly in the seat behind her. 

“You’re gonna laugh if I tell you,” Finn said, rolling his eyes.

“What? Just-”

“It’s _Poe’s_ …” he said, not seeming to relish the fact, cutting Rey off. Her eyebrows shot up, she looked back at the fuzzy orange and white dog again.

“Seriously?”

You couldn’t make this stuff up.

“Yes, wish I was kidding,” Finn said glumly as they turned a street. “We used to be friends, remember?” 

He glanced at the dog in the rearview mirror. 

“How’s things, Bee Bee?”

The fluffy ball in his backseat waved its tail in greeting.

“See?” Finn said. “He remembers me. Or maybe it’s just because he’s really friendly. Anyway, yeah, the Damerons have had him for a while. He’s a pretty cute little guy. And I mean the dog, ok.” 

Rey laughed.

“Sorry to put you through this,” she replied, crossing her leg and glancing at the suburban neighborhood they were driving through. “If I’d known, I’d try to get another ride.”

“It’s fine. I should get some use out of this car besides just driving to get milkshakes…”

He looked at her and smirked, shaking his head to himself as if he could too barely believe this situation. 

It was a short ride, and they pulled up on a cheerful medium sized house, painted blue. It had some indications that it belonged to a family with kids - there was a little t ball stand and bat laying in the front yard grass, and some kid’s size racing bikes under an awning by the garage. 

“I’m just gonna stay in the car,” Finn said darkly, holding his hands on the wheel after he shut off the ignition.

“Come on,” she said, opening the car door. “This is gonna be weird without you, come on!”

With a groan, Finn agreed. He flipped down the car shade, briefly checking his reflection in the little mirror on it before getting out, as Rey retrieved Bee from the backseat. The dog kicked its little feet energetically as she carried it down the path toward the front entrance. After checking that Finn was indeed standing behind her, she reached over and rang the doorbell with her elbow, as her hands were full.

The door was opened a few moments later by a little boy, probably 8 or 9. He had bushy black hair that stuck up in funny ways, and his eyes lit up at the sight of the dog in Rey’s arms, which now positively squirmed. 

“Bee Bee!” the little boy shouted energetically. Rey bent down to let the small dog out of her arms. It ran in and up to the small dark haired boy.

“Eric, did you forget our rule? No opening doors to strangers. Wait for me to come.” a deeper, masculine voice said from elsewhere in the house, and the sound of their approaching footsteps could be heard. 

“They had Bee Bee!” the little boy named Eric said defensively, patting the fluffy dog.

“What?”

And then, Poe Dameron appeared in the doorway. He was wearing jeans and a Yankees t shirt that nicely hugged the developed muscles across his chest and shoulders, and looked immensely surprised to see them.

“Finn? Rey?” he said curiously. 

“I found your dog hanging out in the woods behind my house,” Rey quickly explained. Poe looked behind him.

“I let him out in the backyard… man, we must have a loose fence post. Well, thank you very much,” he said, grinning at them.

“Thank Finn. He was the one who recognized the dog,” Rey explained, smiling. “And how I was able to get here so fast.”

She looked behind her. Finn, who had been staring intently at his shoes, looked up.

“Ah, yeah, no big…” he said, smiling nervously and rubbing his upper arm with his other hand. 

“You remembered,” Poe said to Finn, smiling. “You guys wanna come in?”

Before Finn could protest, Rey smiled and nodded.

“Sure, why not?”

Poe opened the door wider and motioned for them to come in. Beside her, Finn shot Rey the tiniest of uneasy looks, before walking in with her. They were greeted with a warm, pleasant foyer. Under the hall table to their left, there was a large amount of shoes - one or two pairs of women’s loafers and sneakers, and a whole bunch of men’s and boys shoes. Rey glanced at a framed photo on this table - it showed the Dameron family. They were all standing together with their arms around one another, Poe, his parents - both attractive, grinning, Latino individuals, and two other younger boys. Everyone looked very smiley and happy. 

“So this is how the Rebels’ star lives…” Rey observed, as they walked past a set of stairs toward a kitchen. Looking behind him, Poe smirked good naturedly at the comment, running a hand through his wavy black hair. They passed a corner where at least two boys’ backpacks were tossed, and into the kitchen - an airy, inviting space with a round wooden table in the center. There was a bowl with fresh cut flowers sitting in the center. Poe cleared what appeared to be his homework off one side and gestured for them to sit. 

“Lemonade cool?” he asked, bending his tall frame after opening the fridge. 

“Sure,” Rey answered, looking around. The Dameron house was a pretty average looking suburban residence - a dog and three cute kids to match. For some reason, with all she’d heard about Poe, she had built him up as… well, as not so average. Her eyes flicked from the window to the wall near the cabinets. A photo on the it caught her attention. It showed Poe and a man who appeared to be his father, standing beside one of those small low flying planes in what looked like an airfield. They were both carrying large pilot’s earmuffs. Mr. Dameron had his arm around his boyishly handsome son.

“You fly?” she asked curiously, gesturing to the picture.

“Hm? Oh, yeah,” he answered, looking up before going to pour the lemonade from a plastic jug. “My dad’s a commercial pilot. He got me hooked on it.”

“Wow, that’s so cool!” 

“Thanks,” Poe answered warmly. He passed them their glasses and sat down in the open chair. “Yep, I do have other hobbies besides baseball…”

Rey chuckled, taking a sip of the sweet, cool drink. There was a few moments silence. Poe looked at Finn, who was staring at the table.

“Remember this flower pot?” he asked, smiling gently. “This place probably hasn’t changed a bit.”

Finn looked at the dark haired boy across from him and gave a small smile in return, letting his eyes scan the room. 

“Yep, mostly…” he answered. “Eric’s bigger, though.”

Poe chuckled. 

“Yeah, well, so am I…”

The boys gave small laughs. Rey leaned back and watched intently. Finn seemed to be gently allowing himself to become more at ease. He allowed his tightly crossed arms to loosen somewhat and was more willing to make eye contact with his former friend. 

“Everyone else doing good?” Finn asked after a moment, addressing Poe. 

“Oh yeah, all just fine. Mom asks about you, and everything.”

“Really… what do you tell her?”

Finn gave a bigger smile. Poe pushed a bit of his shiny hair out of his face, clasping his hands and leaning forward on the table casually.

“That you’re doing good, still toting that camera around everywhere, big boss at the school paper.”

Rey grinned at her friend. Poe smiled amiably at them both. 

“So, where are you from again?” he asked her.

“Arizona. Phoenix area. Hot and desert-y, you know….”

“Oh, right. Parents change jobs?” 

“Um, moved in with Aunt. Some stuff going on back home so… here I am.” she said a bit awkwardly, scratching her nose. Poe nodded and didn’t ask anything else about it, to Rey’s relief.

“Feels like I’m 14 again, being here…” Finn said suddenly, looking around the room again. 

“Sorry my mom’s not here to give us fresh baked cookies,” Poe replied with a chuckle. “Simpler time.”

“Yeah… simpler.”

The boys looked at each other for a few moments, then away, at the ground or table, like they were a little embarrassed or someone had just brought up a slightly uncomfortable memory. Rey broke in, sensing the awkwardness of the interaction.

“Well, we won’t intrude on your hospitality too long,” she announced, finishing off her lemonade. “My Aunt is probably wondering where I am, anyway.”

“Ah, if you’re sure. Thanks so much for bringing Bee back.” 

As if on cue, the adorable dog scampered into the kitchen, the young boy from before following closely behind. Poe caught his little brother round the waist and slung an arm around him.

“Remember Finn, Eric?” he asked the bushy haired boy. “He used to be around all the time when you were extra little. And this is Rey.”

Eric looked bashfully at the two guests. 

“I remember.” he mumbled. Rey gave him a little wave and he looked away embarrassedly. Poe grinned and tousled the boy’s hair, letting him go.

“ _Just don’t let Bee into the backyard, ok?_ ” he called after him. “Sorry, he’s at the stage where he thinks girls his age are gross, and older ones are scary.”

Rey laughed as they got to their feet. Poe led the two of them to the door. 

“See you guys at school tomorrow,” he said, stepping in the doorway as they walked out. “Thanks again, I owe you guys big time.”

“You’re on,” Finn said jokingly. Poe chuckled, looking away, almost bashfully. 

“Bye!” Rey said, looking from one boy to the other - Finn looking at Poe with a wistful sort of expression on his face. And then they walked back to Finn’s car. After hearing the sound of the door behind them shut, she patted Finn on the back.

“See, that wasn’t so bad…” she said quietly as they got into the car.

“Speak for yourself,” Finn said stiffly, but when she looked back a few moments later, she noticed he was smiling to himself. Looking out the window as they pulled down the tree lined street, Rey grinned too. Much more had come out of that innocent walk in the woods than she had intended - a lot more.


	5. The Project

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A peek into the mind of the elusive Ben Solo...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU once again for all the kudos and feedback! You guys make me grin. So finally, for all you Reylo shippers, here's 1 of 2 chapters solely dedicated to the blossoming relationship between our quiet artist and inquisitive new girl. Check back tomorrow for a a nice, LONG chapter that'll make you really happy. 
> 
> Leave love in the comments/kudos box!

Chapter 5 - The Project 

It was a little after 7 pm. Ben Solo was as usual, alone in his room. He had assumed a position frequented by him lately - lying flat on his back on his bed, staring at the ceiling. His jacket was hanging over the back of his chair by his desk and his grey t shirt was lying on a crumpled heap in the floor. Lying with his bare, pale arms folded behind his head, Ben silently listened to the sounds of activity on the first floor floating up to his room on the second, muffled by his closed door.

The white brick faced Solo home, with its backyard that overlooked the Hudson, was one of the bigger homes in town. An impressively tall structure featuring four large columns beside the front entrance, it had a four bedrooms, five and a half baths, a pool and a huge basement rec room…. a perfect house for the frequently entertaining couple that was his parents - the mayor and the popular radio host. Just right now, they were having some sort of party, or work event, or get together, or something… Ben made a point of it not to go downstairs. He didn’t need a bunch of people pestering him, whispering amongst themselves when they thought he was out of earshot - _he’s so quiet…. not a very social kid, apparently… art school, can you imagine if yours wanted to do that?_

Ben’s eyes flicked around his own room vacantly as he absently listened to the soft babble of the party. It was a long rectangular room with grey walls on which the dark haired young man had tacked up all kinds of things - movie posters for _A Clockwork Orange, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest_ and _Carrie_ , among others, fliers for concerts and shows he’d gone to in the city, pictures he’d ripped out of contemporary art magazines. In another corner, a record player with a crate of records - everything from Pink Floyd to Radiohead and The xx. On his black desk was a Apple laptop and messy stack of textbooks and other school stuff, next to a shelf of assorted beat up paperbacks and DVDs boxes. A disorganized dresser was in a closet full of skinny jeans, shirts in muted colors, and dark jacket, near to a TV on a wooden stand. In another corner, there was an empty easel and crates of art supplies - packs of pencils, paints, bags of charcoal sticks and big pads of clean white paper.

Evidence of his favorite hobby was everywhere. Old filled sketchbooks sat stacked precariously in the bookshelf. There were loose papers covered in drawings and scribbles everywhere - tacked up walls, squished between textbooks, even under the bed. Even now, his current go to sketchbook, a small leather bound Moleskine, sat on his bedside table a few feet away, bulging slightly due to the array of things that had been stuffed and glued inside. 

Ben stared at the window above his bed, draped with dark blue hangings and letting in the last rays, till it became a haze in his vision. He’d been lying there for ages, making some loose deal to himself to actually get something done and stop wasting time, which he had been breaking at the moment. His mind was occupied with imagining what was going on downstairs - local town yucks kissing ass to his parents, who probably stood holding glasses of wine with their arms around each other. He frowned at the thought himself, at everything - this town, which was way too small, at all these people, who were fake... 

_Careful there, Holden Caulfield_ he heard the sarcastic voice of his red haired best friend, Hux, saying in his head, and Ben smirked. Hux always made sure to remind him when he was sounding too melodramatic. It made him laugh, and he acknowledged that his friend was probably correct. Life could be a lot worse. It was still hard not to wallow in his own self pity sometimes, when he thought of what everyone downstairs thought of him. Ben Solo was never the type of kid who fit in very well. He was always too quiet, always a little bit too weird, always a little alternative. Which in turn just made him more so. _Just junior year,_ he always told himself, _then one summer, then senior year…_ then New York City. Pratt or Cooper Union. Somewhere where they appreciated the understated artist. 

Allowing himself a small sigh, he sat up, reaching for his t shirt and sliding over his long, slim torso, and reached for his backpack, resolving to get some of his assigned English reading done. Digging around for the small paperback, he got frustrated when he could not find it, and turned the black backpack that he was looking for it in upside down, letting everything fall out. Notebooks, pens, and old crumpled up sketch pages all came falling out. Spotting the book in the mess, he picked it up with satisfaction, when another half folded packet of paper caught his eye. 

Lifting it up closer to him and tucking some of his long hair behind his ear, he unfolded it, not recognizing what it was at first glance. The new edition of the _Rebel Press_ \- he’d picked one up absently just because he had made the last addition, according to Hux, to Ben’s very immense surprise. He didn’t even know where they had gotten that photo of him at the art show - he only vaguely remembered getting it taken. It surprised him, and secretly pleased him so much, that he saved a copy of that edition in a safe spot on his desk.

The new one, judging by the big central photo of the baseball jocks in their silly uniforms, looking as they always did - better than you - told him this probably was just another run of the mill addition. He was about to toss it back on the ground when a small photo on the left side caught his eye. 

A portrait of a familiar face - the pretty girl from his American History class. He lifted the paper a little closer to his long face to get a better look at the shot. He remembered her name was Rey, he definitely did, and that she was new - his father had mentioned her. She sat beside him next to that chatty Finn kid, and sometimes he caught her peeking at whatever he was drawing at the time, which he did a lot before first period. He always pretended he hadn’t seen her, partially to save her from embarrassment, and partially because he kind of liked to know that someone was interested in his work. Ben was just always that awkward, ultra tall guy with his big nose buried in a sketchbook - he assumed she’d passed that judgement about him by now, but it was possible that she hadn’t. So he kept on letting her peek every so often. And she was really pretty. Especially when she smiled. 

Feeling the usual itch to sketch, and despite the fact that he did have some pressing reading to get done, he reached for his sketchbook, resolving to take only a few minutes out. Grabbing a pencil and scooting his lanky body back till he could lean against the wall, he put the paper against one knee, and opened to a fresh page. A few sketchy lines made up the angles in her jaw, the straightness in her brows. He took care to execute her almond shaped eyes and add a wisp of smoky lashes. Ben always liked to add lashes, he felt they gave character. 

Her lips he drew in gentle waves and angles. They were thin - he found the way they curved up as she smiled in the photo immensely pleasing. A few minutes later he was looking down at a sketch of the photo in the paper, showing a pretty girl smiling softly at the viewer. For some reason, he was more proud of it than a lot of his recent drawings. It had heart. Knowing he was going to regret this later, he leaned over and stretched his long arm out for his inking pens. Uncapping one, he bent down again and started going over his pencil lines…. 

-  
Later that very next day, the girl in the portrait herself was walking down the quiet street in the direction of the Solo house. It was the later afternoon on an overcast, but not unpleasant day. Rey had her backpack slung across one shoulder, and was looking from a scrap of paper in her hand to the house numbers for the suburban mini mansions she was walking past. 

Alderaan Avenue was populated by many of these big, upscale type homes, unlike most of the regular size ones around the parts of Resistance that Rey had seen so far. They all had neatly trimmed lawns, multiple garages or wide driveways and multiple level. Some had elegant brick faces or columns around their doors - but they were all clearly owned by wealthier individuals. Behind them and their large, leafy backyards, one could spot slivers of the Hudson River, which all these homes clearly had views of. The whole block was on somewhat of a steep incline, as many streets in Resistance were. By the time Rey rounded the crest of the hill, she was panting. And she had arrived. 

Pausing to catch her breath and collect herself and tucking back that bit of loose hair that seemed to always escape her ponytails or braids, she surveyed 3324 Alderaan Ave - the Solo residence. Like many of the homes surrounding it, the big house was huge and elegant - composed of panels of red and white bricks. A big front door sat on a portico with four columns, and the house it had a personal, semicircle driveway that led to a two door garage. It was much bigger than Aunt Maz’s humble wood panel house with its messy windowboxes and weedy backyard. 

Rey asked herself if she was going to stand there all day, or go up to the door and knock, but her own intimidation kept her feet stuck to the sidewalk for a few more moments. This wasn’t just anyone’s home - this was the mayor’s residence. She’d done a little digging at home and figured out that yes, Leia Solo was the mayor of Resistance, and had been so for the last five years. Finding information about her online, Rey had come across photos of a regal, confident looking woman. She had greying brown hair pulled back in a braided bun, but her face - with high cheekbones and symmetrical features - possessed vestiges of timeless beauty, much like her husband.’s Mayor Solo was smiling at the camera in a warm, but commanding sort of way. She looked like the type of woman who demanded respect. 

And then there was the fact that through this door she’d find their son. She thought back to that morning in first period, when Mr. Threepio had cheerfully announced a new project - 1960s events and culture. Each group was supposed to put together a well researched powerpoint accompanied by individuals papers on an assigned topic. Rey’s topic? The space race. And her assigned partner? The quiet, lanky limbed Ben Solo, who she had gotten into this bad habit of spying on when he drew before class in the morning. He never seemed to notice, at least, not that she could tell - maybe she was just very good at being discreet. But he was really talented. He drew all sorts of things, sketches of people and faces, fantasy landscapes, expressive little cartoons. She’d taken to watching his frame, the way he held a pencil with his pale, long fingered hand, the way he sort of slouched his thin, broad shoulders when he bent over his work.

He hadn’t seemed to be paying attention when Mr. Threepio assigned the groups. When everyone in the class started getting up and moving desks to talk to their partners about when they should meet to work (because, apparently, there was not time enough in class to spare, Mr. Threepio had reminded them in his crisp British accent), Ben looked up, brows furrowed in confusion. 

“Hi,” Rey said to him after a pause, louder than usual to be heard over the sound of scraping desks and people’s voices and tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. “I’m your partner - for the 1960s project?”

Understanding dawned on his face when she said this. Quickly flipping his sketchbook shut, he pushed a hand through his messy black hair and licked his lips. 

“I’m Ben,” he said, clearing his throat. 

“Yeah, I know…” Rey said, cracking a smile after the moment of silence. “I’ve met your dad.”

Ben nodded quickly, scratching the back of his neck. 

“Right.” he mumbled. “He mentioned it. Listen, I have to house-sit this afternoon because we have an electrician coming. Could we just meet there and knock this thing out?”

He waited for her answer, picking at his nail with one hand and looking away for a few moments. 

“I guess so,” Rey said after a pause, not being able to think of a reason why she should object. She was going to suggest the library, but some part of her was truly curious about how the mayor, her charming town-celebrity husband, and her mysterious, soft spoken son lived. 

And now she was standing there right in front of the residence. So why was she so hesitant about walking up? Because she was nervous about entering the house of borderline complete strangers that somehow, though her Aunt, already did know her? Or because she couldn’t help but remark, whenever she was spying on Ben, that he was kind of attractive, with his angular features, messy hair, and obvious talent?

Setting aside her weird apprehensions, she adjusted her backpack strap on her shoulder, and started a purposeful stride up to the column flanked door.


	6. In Common

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey finally learns more about the mysterious Ben Solo - and gets a little more than she bargained for...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for that cliffhanger last chapter, but here is it - a long Reylo heavy chapter for you all! Please enjoy and tune in tomorrow for some heartwarming Finn/Poe development. I appreciate all the feedback and love I've gotten on this story so far, I'm excited to finish it and share it with you! Hope you are cool with how long it's getting - I've always been a bigger fan of slower, meatier stories that take time to get going, it makes it all the more engrossing. 
> 
> PS - I was on Tumblr and found this _adorable_ Adam Driver gifset, and it made me grin - Ben Solo vibes, anyone?? http://mur-dorks.tumblr.com/post/136734995032/adamdriverdaily-frances-ha-2013

For the second time in a pretty short while, Rey Walker was standing on the doorstep of an unfamiliar house. Raising her hand, she was about to knock on the large, shiny wood door when it swung open on its own regard. Standing within the doorway on a floor of dark paneling was Ben, looking down at her from his immense height. 

“I saw you coming up,” he explained after a moment. “Uh, come in.”

He stepped his tall frame aside to allow her to come in, rubbing his prominent nose wordlessly. Unsurprisingly, the interior of the big home was as attractive and well kept as its outside. The door opened on a foyer, the wall to the immediate left curving into a staircase with a gentle wind, with an elegant iron-style railing. The left wall stretched straight from the door, leading to the entrance to a pretty, airy living room with attractive furniture and big windows. Directly ahead, to the slight right of the staircase, a big semicircle shaped window on the adjacent wall showed a stunning view of the river behind the house. 

“Hold on, the electrician’s calling,” Ben mumbled, striding away to the call of a thick New York accent yelling _“HEY, KID?”_ from deeper in the house. So Rey was left alone in foyer, staring up at the tall ceilings and the exposed hallway of the second floor. 

Beside the entrance to the staircase, she looked at a round hall table that held a few objects - a big pot of flowers, one of those vintage metal “ON AIR” signs that one associated with ‘50s radio stations and recording studios, beside a framed photograph. Rey took a step forward to take a closer look.

It looked like an official portrait, perhaps of Mayor Leia’s. The dignified, regal looking Mrs. Solo stood at the center in a professional looking, navy blue dress with long sleeves. Behind her, with his arm gently around her was Han Solo, with his white shirt and black sportcoat, again sporting no tie. Even then, his smile had a roguish sort of shine to it. On Mrs. Solo’s other side, Ben stood with his back turned slightly to them. He had his hand in the pocket of dress pants and was dressed like his father, except his shirt beneath his jacket was black as well, and obviously tailored to fit a tall, skinnier physique. He was not smiling, but he had a neutral sort of expression on, with his eyebrows raised slightly. In his all black suit he looked a bit like some suave young college kid. The contents of the table were an expertly put together representation of the elegant house’s residents, and Rey was impressed. 

As she was still bent slightly, looking at the picture, she heard the patter of what sounded like an animal’s feet, and once again, for the second time in very few days, a dog was coming to investigate her. This one was much, much different than Poe’s little corgi Bee. In fact, it was one of the biggest dogs Rey had ever seen - its sheer size caught her completely off guard. It was either a dog or a small bear with floppy ears, Rey reasoned as the enormous canine, covered all over in long, thick brown and black hair, trotted over to look at her, his head easily reaching above her waist. It had floppy ears and sleepy looking eyes, only not covered by its own fur because it had been trimmed around the face. It looked at her and gave a funny kind of bark.

“Ah damn it, Chewie, don’t attack the guests!” Ben’s low voice suddenly said as he appeared in the doorway from the living room. He was followed by the electrician, who was carrying a toolkit and a clipboard under his arm.

“Man, that’s a bear…” the man muttered in a gruff voice as he walked past Rey and out the door. She laughed at the man’s vocalization of her previous thoughts, patting the massive dog round the ears as it approached and playfully butted itself on her legs. 

“It’s okay,” she said good naturedly, smiling at Ben. “He seems friendly. What breed is he?”

“He’s a Newfoundland. Now, you’ve met another member of my family,” he replied, looking at the incredibly hairy dog like expecting it to say something. “Heel, Chewie. Leave her alone, we don’t have time to play right now.”

Still smiling, Rey gave the dog a few last pats before looking back at its owner. 

“Well, lead the way,” she said briskly, tucking hair behind her ear. Ben rubbed the side of his face and nodded, still not smiling gesturing for her to follow him through the living room. They passed a huge, shiny stone fireplace, and furniture that looked like it could have come straight out of a catalogue. There were more photos on side tables - including a few more interesting ones of Leia and Han as a youthful couple in what looked like the 80s. Han, then still young and rather good looking, had on a black vest over his white shirt. He hugged his current wife, who was wearing a white dress, around the waist. They were both good looking and appeared very happy. She smiled at the sight of the photo - she thought it was a sweet thing to have around. 

Ben led her through the living room, and into the kitchen, which was again, large, airy and full of marble. The whole back wall here was made up of a sets of sliding doors, covered in sheer white curtains, that led to a stone porch and a big, grassy backyard that led straight to a gorgeous view of the river as it ran a few hundred feet below, and wound through the woodsy hills in the distance. 

“This is a beautiful house…” she said, raising her eyes to the vaulted ceilings and airy interior of the room as Ben gestured for her to sit on one of the barstools that sat next to a marble counter.

“Um, thanks, I guess,” he said after a hesitation. “I don’t have any hand in financing it but I’m sure my mom is thankful that someone appreciates her diligent interior decorating…”

Rey watched as Ben opened the large, stainless steel double door fridge to retrieve something. He said some strange things, sometimes. As he reached forward for something the back of his dark green shirt slid up slightly revealing a patch of his pale back. After he turned back around and straightened up, he looked at her and she blinked, having been staring.

“Water?” he asked, holding up a pitcher.

“Um, sure,” Rey said, looking away and rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment. She accepted the glass of water, and cleared her throat.

“So, I didn’t know your mom was the mayor,” she commented. Pouring himself a glass of water, he shrugged.

“Yeah, she is.” he replied simply.

“Must have some interesting people come through here…” Rey said, genuinely wondering about it. 

“Sometimes.” 

He looked away again. She watched him for a moment, wondering if it was something she was doing. He was so mysterious - or maybe just unfriendly. Which also made him frustrating. 

“Um, let’s get started, then…” 

Reaching into her backpack for her textbook, she laid it on the table. Noting her move he spoke up.

“I’ll go get mine.”

And he departed, ambling out of the room on his long legs clad in their dark jeans. Getting to her feet at his absence, Rey walked curiously over to the sliding doors, just as Chewie the Newfoundland passed behind her, on a determined trot to his water bowl. Crossing her arms gently, Rey peeked out the sheer curtains into the huge backyard. On one side, she could see a fence surrounding a pool. On the deck, there was a table with chairs beside a large, fancy grill. The view of the river ahead of her was flanked by a number of tall trees. In the main fork of one, high up, she spotted a small light wood treehouse, accessible by a rope ladder with metal rungs. It was quite high up for a tree house, but definitely any little kid’s dream. 

A closet in a near wall was open slightly, exposing its contents as being full out outdoor activity things - pool supplies, a shovel and a rake, a beach ball, and to her immense surprise...

“Is that a foil?” she asked as Ben walked in the next second, unable to hide the excitement in her voice.

Sure enough, in the dark corner, she could see two foils standing against the wall, and on the shelf above, two of the strange looking, mesh front masks one wore while partaking in the sport of fencing. 

“Um,” he said, putting his textbook down on the table. “Yeah.”

“You fence?”

“Sometimes. I used to have a private coach.”

Rey was still watching the things in the closet with excitement. This was the first time since she’d moved here that she heard anyone ever mention or know anything about the sport she dearly loved. Ben leaned an arm against the table, looking at her with a brow raised slightly.

“You’re welcome to take a look, if you want…” he said after a moment, a brow raised, probably perplexed by her excitement. He walked over to the closet and bent over, again exposing his back, emerging with the two shiny, thin metal swords, tossing one to her.

Rey caught it deftly, relishing its nice, even weight in her hand. She examined it closely, noting it was of a nice make, an expensive brand.

“Damn….” she whispered under her breath, hopping into position and giving the foil a few flicks back and forth. Noticing Ben watching her, an idea popped happily into her head. Holding the sword in his direction, she smiled.

“Still remember any moves?” 

He looked surprised. 

“I think I’m a little tall to be squaring up against you…” he said blankly, looking at the weapon in his hand. Rey stuck a hand on her hip.

“I’ve fought people your height. And I’ve won.”

He looked at the foil for a few more minutes before looking at her again, seemingly sizing her up and calculating his options.

“Come on,” she said after a moment, grinning. “Won’t hurt to blow off a bit of steam before we do this, and plus, I haven’t fought anyone in like, months - I’ll go easy on you.”

“Okay, okay…” he said finally, resigning. “But not in the house. Here.”

He reached back into the closet and tossed her one of the big mesh helmets. Rey grinned. Already, just holding the foil and the helmet made her feel like there was a mild charge of electricity pulsing through her limbs. Tucking back her braid, she put the slightly-too-big helmet onto her head and gave the sliding door a jerk.

Outside, the two teenagers with fencing masks walked onto the grass, the big dog following happily behind and quickly running to chase a squirrel. 

“Am I going to regret this, I’m really rusty…” Ben said, half to himself, as he slid the helmet over his head, hiding his angular features from her. 

“Only when I win,” Rey said matter of factly, grinning. “Come on, what do you remember?”

“Enough, I think…”

They squared up in the grass, holding their foils out in the en garde position. Rey adjusted the weapon so it settled into her hand in the right angle. It wasn’t the best idea to fight without pads, but they weren’t out to hurt each other. Plus, she was hungering to get the weapon moving in her hands against someone who knew how to use it - anyone. She watched him raise his back arm up at a right angle, with the hand relaxed, in the proper position. They stood motionless for a few moments, as each worked up the courage and focus to make the first move. It was ultimately Rey who made it- a rapid step ahead, a lunge attack, which Ben quickly parried. 

And so it went on, attack, parry, counterattack, jump, step, step back. Fencing, as any proficient would tell you, is physical chess - it requires skill of the hand and the foot but also tactics and strategy, attempting to foresee your opponent’s next move, learning about them as you go on. Intensely physical and fast paced, full speed fencing looks like half a dance, half a sword fight.

Rey got a flick on Ben’s torso pretty quickly, however. He was rusty, she noted, so not quite so much of a triumph; his footwork was a bit out of practice, his swings and lunges not as controlled as they could be. But she sensed that he was skilled.

“Touche,” he said, straightening up and pointing his foil at the ground. Rey reminded herself to be careful to not get caught up in watching the way his body looked as he swung his smoothly muscled arms, and swivelled his long torso on narrow hips. It was distracting. 

“Again,” she said, grinning behind her helmet, as they backed up and assumed the proper position again. She wished she could read his expression behind his own. She really wanted what he'd look like smiling.

She hopped forward again as they engaged in their dance, quicker now, with more energy, as they had been warmed up. More close calls, more almost-hits, Rey could feel the tiredness in her knees that came when you were good and going. She was so caught up in the game that she did not notice a large object barrelling directly toward her right as Ben gained an advantage and stabbed directly at the center of her chest, letting out an impassioned “HA!”. 

Rey just felt the tip of his foil tap her right in the middle of her rib cage, when the force of something large and heavy coming in directly for her legs stopped her- its momentum hit her when she was not on the stablest of footings, and sent her falling backwards. She landed directly on her butt, the wind being punched straight out of her by the fall. 

She flopped back in the grass, gasping to catch her breath, as the enormous form of Chewie, which had been what had hit her in the first place, jumped on over and put his big paws on her chest, making it even harder to breathe

“Jesus - _Chewie!_ ” Ben’s voice called out somewhere above her, sounding surprised. The big furry Newfoundland started to lick at the mesh of her helmet as she lay in the grass, before Ben grabbed at his collar and yanked him off.

“Bad dog! Go inside, come on, look what you’ve done…”

After he’d shooed the dog away, Ben dropped to his knees beside her. He’d taken off his helmet, and he looked down at her in surprise in his wide, dark eyes.

“Are you ok?” he asked, sounding genuinely worried that she was very injured. Being unable to help herself, Rey started to laugh.

“Pretty good block by your dog,” she said as he helped her sit up. Taking off her helmet, she noted that he had his hand holding very lightly at her back. “You were about to score.”

“I thought I did,” he mumbled, looking her over as if checking for injury, and quickly dropping his hand that had been touching her. “You sure you’re ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Rey replied, smoothing back hairs that the helmet had pulled out of her braid. “Just winded. You did score, by the way - just before Chewie made it to me, I'll admit it.”

She grinned at him, and he actually returned it with a small, still surprised looking smile. Rey instantly liked how his face looked like this.

“Knew it… damn dog.”

“He must have seen that I was attacking you and got concerned,” she said dismissively. “How sweet. No worries.”

She sat in the grass for a few more moments, waiting for her breath to catch up with her. Looking past Ben at the river, and the trees, her eyes travelled to the spectacular little treehouse again.

“That’s a pretty awesome treehouse,” she said. He turned his head to look at it, too.

“Oh, yeah. My dad had it installed for me for my 7th birthday. Haven’t been up there in years.” 

His eyes lingered on it, as if lost in memories. 

“Can I see it?” she asked impulsively. “I spent half my childhood wanting a treehouse. But there weren’t any big trees…. anywhere near my house.”

He looked at her with a twinge of sympathetic amusement in his eyes. She chuckled at the memory.

“Since my dog damn near broke your leg, I guess you can go into my secret, no girls allowed treehouse…” he said, getting to his feet with a small smile playing in his features. He held out a hand and Rey got up with his help. Leaving their fencing things in the grass, they walked over to the tall oak, high in whose branches the little wooden box sat on its supports. 

“Are you sure you’re ok? I don’t want you really breaking your leg…”

“I’m fine,” she dismissed with a smirk. “And I’m curious.”

Giving him another amused smile, she grabbed a stretch of the rope ladder in front of her and climbed up. Once she’d gotten some ways up, she felt the jerk of him getting on it too, below her. 

A few minutes of climbing and stepping later, she had arrived at the little doorway of the wooden treehouse, high in the branches of the tree. Above it, someone had mounted a plank with messy painted lettering on it reading - _STARKILLER._

“What’s Starkiller?” she called down, grasping the floor of the structure and throwing her weight inside.

“It’s a long story, oh man, what did we leave in there…” he called up, saying the last part to himself and increasing his speed of climbing. Rey scooted a ways in to make sure he had enough room to get inside. It would be a tight squeeze for them, only enough room to sit up, the ceiling wasn’t tall enough for them to stand, but she imagined it would have been perfect for some small boys. 

It was very simple inside, just plain wood floor and walls with a flat roof. To a kid with imagination, that’s more than enough, of course. Besides the entrance hole, there was a square window cut in the side that faced the river, allowing you to see the valley through the branches of the mighty oak that held the little structure. It spread endlessly out, rolling hills of green angling down into the the wide river with peaceful, rocky banks. A iron bridge stood out in the distance, a small reminder of human inhabitation. Looking out the doorhole, you could also get an impressive view of the surrounding neighborhood, its curved streets and nicely trimmed lawns. Rey had a bird’s eye view of the Solo’s big house and yard, with its kidney shaped pool on the right side, surrounded by a fence.

A moment later, a pair of fair hands appeared in the doorway, followed quickly by Ben’s lanky form.

“If I’d have known I was going to be this tall when I was 8, I would have asked for a taller roof,” he muttered as he squeezed himself in. Rey laughed, pushing herself into one corner and hugging her knees, watching with amusement as he forced his big form against the other side. Her eyes scanned the wall above his head, where some things had been haphazardly carved into the wood. 

“What’s all that?” she asked, pointing. He turned his head, and at the sight, gave a chuckle.

“Oh yeah, this….” he said, hugging a knee toward him and looking around. “This brings back memories. Me and my friend Hux used to hang out here practically every day after school.”

“The red haired guy?” Rey asked. Ben nodded. He proceeded to chuckle at what was most likely his own memories.

“We used to... you’re gonna laugh. We used to pretend we were like, space pirates, or something. And our ship was called Starkiller.”

Rey couldn’t help but laugh. 

“And what’s all that say?”

He turned his head and smiling to himself, rubbed his eyes.

“It says…. ‘FEAR KYLO REN + GENERAL HUX’ - it’s what we used to… call ourselves.”

Rey laughed for real now. She imagined a tiny version of Ben sitting inside here with his friend as they played space explorers. 

“ _Kylo Ren?_ ”

“It’s what I called myself! I have no idea where I got it, okay, some made up name…”

He grinned at the floor as the two of them imagined it, laughing. She had barely ever seen him smile, much less laugh - it was a nice sound. He looked even better when the corners of his eyes crinkled in a grin that opened beneath his long nose and when he relaxed his long neck and broad shoulders. Ben leaned against the wall now, at ease.

“Your dad was really cool of doing this for you,” she said, sliding her hand down the smooth wood wall of the treehouse.

“Ah, well,” he said, scratching his shoulder with his other arm. “Everyone certainly thinks so.”

She watched him, sensing something in the statement.

“And you think…?”

He was silent for a few moments, looking thoughtfully into the distance, into the setting sun over quiet suburbia.   
“My dad gets along with everyone really good… not always me, though.” he commented finally. “I mean, it’s fine… I just think, I mean, look at him. And my mom. People must think I’m some kind of alien compared to them.”

“Alien.”

He shrugged moodily. She blinked, realizing that he was sharing something intensely personal with him.

“You know. My mom’s the mayor, my dad’s a local legend... I think he would rather have someone… more like him. I’m just… a guy who likes to draw. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they came out and told me I was _adopted._ , or something.”

“I’m sure it’s not quite like that,” she said quietly, him unknowingly having hit a nerve. “Consider yourself lucky.”

He was silent again. She swallowed and continued.

“Because I am adopted, and-”

Ben quickly looked at her, causing whatever she was going to say to die in her throat. He looked a little ashamed.

“Oh, sorry,” he said quickly and apologetically. “I didn’t mean it like… that.”

She hugged her knees to her chest and gave him a small smile. 

“It’s cool. My parents are good people and stuff, but I only moved here because of them. My dad lost his job, there were issues with the bank, then they got divorced… I kinda had to get out of there, you know?”

She said all this quietly, staring at the wood floor of the treehouse, at the tiny cracks through which you could see all the way to the ground far below.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated softly. “Guess we have that in common.”

She looked up at him, and saw him watching her with a gentle, sensitive expression on, his dark brows knitted slightly. In the gathering darkness, his angular face was lit only by the increasingly dim light of the sun, giving it a sort of warm, cinematic quality. She found it enticing and attractive. 

“Not getting along with parents? ....I guess we do,” she replied, smiling again. Ben tilted his head and looked down again, smiling to himself, tracing his fingers absently against the wood grain of the floor. After a moment he spoke up again. 

“Thanks for listening.”

Rey sat back again and smiled softly, watching his pretty pale frame. Impulsive new desires and feelings bloomed in her chest like a spring flower in the day’s sun. She imagined the way his long arms might feel around her waist, or his messy hair between her fingers. It made her ears feel warm, and she looked down again. 

“You’re welcome.” Rey replied a moment later, rubbing the back of her warm neck bashfully.

So the two sat, and listened to the soft sounds of the rushing river far below and the wind in the trees, just being in each other’s presence. 

It was nice.


	7. Hiss, Thunk, Swish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Poe play some baseball... kind of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Here's another biggie for you Finn/Poe fans. Really adore writing these characters. Leave kudos/comments x

Whilst Ben and Rey were sitting up in a treehouse, looking out at the suburban streets of Resistance, across town, Finn was exiting the school building. His messenger bag strap sitting diagonally across his broad chest, he rested his fingers across it as he walked out of the exit at the top of the hill. It was a warm night, as a gentle breeze that was blowing in spring tickled his neck. Newspaper club meeting had run late as they finalized things for the latest edition. He found the quiet of the deserted schoolyard to be peaceful after a long, loud day.

Finn’s mind was a jumbled mess of mentally listing things he had to get done this upcoming weekend, wondering what Rey and the rest of his friends were up to right now, and absent thoughts about emotions, always floating in the background. His recent encounter at Poe’s house had…. distracted him. He’d accepted a while ago that he was definitely attracted to his ex best friend, whom he had not had a conversation with in years till Rey came along, but he’d repressed it, in acceptance of its impossibilities. Until Rey had gone and shoved them together again. It was like she’d opened a can of worms, forcing him to come into his house with her, and now he could not stop thinking about it. Pathetic.

Finn walked further and further down the hill, crossing a few trailers, till be arrived at the spot where he and Rey had been sitting and doing their homework the other day, and she’d confronted him about _things._ He pictured her pretty, inquisitive face in his mind, with her angular eyes and high cheekbones and little pointed nose. She was smart and fun and interesting - he was very thankful she had come into her life. Guess it had been a good idea to sign up for that welcome guides thing that he’d put his name down for months ago. He smiled to himself, being thankful he had at least one new great thing in his life. 

Walking past the table, his eyes flicked over to the field ahead, at the bottom of the hill, to the right of the parking lot where his car currently sat with very few others. The baseball diamond sat on the farthest left, with its fence around it and many bleachers that had been set up, in preparation for the big game. The school had gone into overdrive to prepare. The field grass was being trimmed, the bases were being cleaned, the athletic supplies were being inventoried and inventoried again, to make sure everything was in order. And the excitement was palatable. Past the end of the bleachers, in a wide stretch of grass around which the path to the parking lot wound, sat the black mesh batting cage, where you could sometimes spot players working on their hits.

Finn took his time walking down the hill, appreciating the way it looked in the slowly dying light. The bright stadium lights above the baseball diamond had been turned on, flooding the field in white illumination. Soon there would be cheering crowds here, winding up for the match. Finn was looking forward to it, not only to watch Poe at the top of his game, but because he enjoyed the heady, excited energy that came with such events. And Rey had never been to an RHS game. He grinned at the thought of taking her.

A figure emerged out of a car in the dim parking lot to whom Finn didn’t pay much attention. He was mentally calculating what homework he had, mercifully little, until a call out by someone in the lot caused him to look up in surprise.

“Hey, Finn!” said the voice. Unmistakable, and it caused Finn to stop in his tracks. Emerging into the light of the path was the confident figure of Poe Dameron, Rebel’s captain, carrying a bat under his arm, a bucket of baseballs with one hand, and his helmet with the other. 

“Oh,” was all Finn could muster. He could not help but instantly remark on Poe’s looks. Effortlessly attractive as usual, Poe’s dark hair in its shiny waves hung slightly in his dark hooded eyes that sometimes had that gorgeous sleepy look to them. Broad shoulders, in his school sweatshirt, and the muscular arms underneath- from all that pitching and swinging and push ups and... _god bless those tight little uniform pants_ , Finn thought, forcing himself to make eye contact. 

“Hi,” he said finally, blinking. 

“What’s up?” Poe asked, finally making it up to him, and putting down his bucket of balls. 

“Oh, not much, just a club meeting and stuff…”

Finn hated how stuttery, awkward, and quiet he got around his former friend. Aside from Poe’s looks being the obvious distraction, Finn was always consumed with his own awkwardness. He wished he could act more natural, like he could with Rey. He doubted “natural” would ever apply to anything between him and Poe. 

“Headed home?” Poe asked, giving him a crooked smile. His eyes flicked behind Finn for a moment.

“Was thinking about it,” Finn replied, scratching the side of his broad nose and hoisting his backpack strap from slipping.

“Wanna do me a big favor?”

Finn blinked wordlessly. He wished that phrase could apply to something else but looked at Poe, waiting anxiously for the answer.

“I want to practice my batting but my meetup fell through…. could you give me a hand?”

_I’d give you lots of things_ , Finn thought to himself cynically.

“But, um,” he replied after a moment, clearing his throat. “I can’t really throw like… that.”

Poe chuckled, holding his bat against his shoulder in his ever casual way.

“There’s a pitching machine. All you gotta do is drop a sucker in.”

Finn was literally completely torn at the options. On one hand, he wanted to get out of here _very much_ , before he did anything else embarrassing in front of this incredibly sexy baseball star. But on the other hand, he deeply wanted to spend more time with him. That encounter at his house had uncorked those old wishes in a younger version of him to have his friend back, and the desires within the current him to have something… more. It was more than a little torturous. 

“Why not,” he said finally, cracking an awkward smile at Poe’s energetic grin.

“Alright! Solid. Here,” he passed him the bucket of balls. It was heavy. “Thanks so much, I really appreciate it.”  
“Sure… don’t have much else better to do.”

Finn kicked himself for this comment - it sounded rude, but followed Poe through the rapidly advancing dark on the path toward the batting cage, _definitely_ not looking at his ass. Why did he agree to this, again? Poe stuck his bat under a muscular arm again and shook out his gorgeous hair, putting his helmet on.

“I’m not gonna be hit with any 90 mile per hour home runs, am I?” Finn asked, this thought only just crossing his mind. 

Poe laughed. It was a pleasant sound.

“Nah, hits typically don’t rebound directly onto the pitcher. There’s a net, too. It’s broken nose proof, don’t worry.”

“Okay, if you’re sure. Because my nose is a pretty big ass target.” Finn said, half to himself, addressing a personal insecurity. Poe laughed again, glancing back at his old friend with a grin. It made Finn feel a bit weak at the knees. 

They walked up to the batting cage - a misnomer, because it was more like a big set of nets set up on a metal skeleton. Finn left his backpack by the entrance, adjusting his denim jacket as the batter walked in before him.

“All you have to do,” Poe said, gesturing to the pitching machine. “Is drop a ball into this metal part, and it’ll do the rest.”

The machine was a strange looking thing. It sat on a wide tripod and had a metal tube, that’s where you dropped the balls. That tube emptied out into the space between two large, solid white wheels that looked like grindstones. This what would launch the ball at full speed at the batter, standing a few yards away.

“I think I got it,” said Finn, eyeing the weird little machine as he put the bucket of balls on the ground. 

He hesitated before he spoke again, as Poe walked behind the net that would separate them and over to the batter’s spot. 

“So, didn’t practice end a while ago? What are you still doing here?”

Poe stretched his shoulder by grabbing one of his elbow behind him with his other hand. 

“Just wanted to get a little extra batting work in.”

He continued the stretch while stretching around his torso.

“You guys ready for the game?” Finn asked, looking away awkwardly, just to make conversation. Poe gave a kind of funny chuckle.

“Um, we better be,” he said, continuing to warm up, a hint of strain in his voice as he stretched his   
various muscles. Finn was not an idiot. And he knew Poe well, despite his constant insistence on the fact that he was a completely different person and to not bother and stop romanticizing the past. 

“Sounds… like a confident answer.”

Poe laughed again.

“You can still read me, huh?” he gave one of his dashing grins, as he bent his knees slightly and swung up his bat, focusing on the place where the ball would be coming from. “Ok, hit the button on the side, and toss it in..”

Following instruction, Finn flicked a switch on the side to the “on” position, and the machine started to give off a low buzz. The wheels began to spin incredibly fast, giving off a quiet hissing sound as they did so. He picked up one of the solid white balls from the bucket with the clean red stitching, and dropped it in the metal tube, quickly withdrawing his hand. It shot out from with a THUNK from the machine so fast that Finn barely saw it. He heard the solid sound of it hitting Poe’s bat, as he swung his body in one deft, well coordinated motion. It all happened so fast, that the next time that Finn actually saw the ball, it had hit the net and bounced innocently into the grass. 

“Was that good?” he asked a moment later as Poe readjusted his position. The handsome batter gave him a smile and a nod.

“Another, please.”

And so the motion was repeated. In play, Poe was a machine. His hits were clean, he followed through smoothly, and his muscular arms and torso seemed to be perfectly tuned to knowing exactly where the ball would be. 

“Yes, I _can_ still read you,” Finn commented carefully, after he’d dropped in another ball. Poe’s swing faltered just so - foul ball.

“Oh, sorry,” Finn said quickly. Foot, meet mouth. “I don’t mean to distract.”

Poe shook his head good naturedly. 

“I’m gonna have even bigger distractions on Tuesday. But, you’re right, you caught me - stage fright, that’s all.”

“Oh,” Finn said softly. Poe assumed position again, his brows furrowed in concentration.

“Just don’t want to disappoint everyone. Drop one.”

This swing elicited a better hit. Finn almost laughed at the comment, shifting his weight to his other foot.

“I’m sure that nobody is gonna walk away from that game disliking you,” he dismissed.

“You think? Again.”

_Hiss, thunk, TINK, swish, thump._ Typical Poe, Finn thought, smiling to himself. He was always unsure of what people thought of him. _Oh, to be that adorably naive about how much everyone really loves you._ Practically a bad joke. 

“I’m sure.” Finn pressed. “I mean, I get it - pressure. But I don’t know anyone who has anything bad to say about you, even when you lose.”

Poe gave a small smile. 

“What _do_ they say, then?” 

It was almost a playful tone. Finn liked that. He liked that they could get more comfortable with each other, joke, riff on one another. It harkened back to good time. After another successful swing, Finn answered.

“Just the usual. Look at that team captain, he’s amazing, what a good kid, he’s going places, blah blah.”  
Poe blinked, resting for a moment with his bat held like a cane, as he crossed one leg over the other.   
“Somehow, that only builds pressure…” he mused.

“Maybe if it wasn’t true.” Finn said simply. “I know you too well, Dameron… what are your plans for…. college and all that? If you’d excuse the cliche question.”

If he was being fully honest, he would say that he had imagined, many years ago, them making that journey together, through college applications and that. That was before a lot of change, of course.  
Poe’s expression got less certain. He kicked absently in the grass with his cleat.

“I’m not a hundred percent sure. I was thinking I’d… try to get into the Air Force. Throw another.”

Finn almost choked, nearly dropping the ball in his hand. 

“ _The Air Force?_ ” he said, in utter disbelief. Poe dropped his bat from the ready position, his brows furrowing. 

“It’s not that unbelievable,” he defended. “I mean, I get good grades, I can already fly - plus, my grandfather served.”

Finn took a breath, reminding himself to be kind. It still shocked him a great deal.

“Yeah, but, I mean… the military? You really think you’d like that? And your parents are cool with it?”

“I haven’t told them. It was just an idea - actually, I haven’t told anyone, besides you.”

Finn softened slightly, feeling flattered. But there was still that one issue about someone he deeply cared about (as much as he denied it to himself) considering entering one of the most questionable institutions Finn could think of - the military. And putting himself in danger, if he made it in, that is.

“Well, I mean,” he began, tossing the ball in his hand lightly from one to the other. “Isn’t it really hard to get in? And, like… dangerous. In war zones.”

Poe’s face brightened. 

“That’s sweet,” he said, smiling. “But I’m pretty aware of how that all works.”

Finn looked down, feeling his ears get warm. Busted, a little.

“What about college, what about baseball?” he said then, turning the conversation away from himself. 

“There’s gonna be scouts at the games this year - they’ve heard of this team.”

“I know…” 

Poe swung back into position and gestured for another hit.

“Coach tells me I could have a chance at a scholarship. That would be great but… I don’t know.”  
He hit the ball, and slackened his body again.

“I’m not sure if I wanna keep being _baseball guy_. Don’t get me wrong, I love this game only slightly less than my own mother, but… I don’t know. I was thinking I could do something of more substance than just to ship away and hope for a chance at the major leagues.”

Finn imagined an older, even better looking Poe, standing on home plate at Yankees stadium in a clean, professional grade uniform. His concentrated, angular face would appear on the Jumbotron, and the crowds would scream, cheer, get all wound up, just for him.

“I don’t think that lacks substance,” Finn answered after a moment. “I mean, look at it this way. Some tiny Latino kid in the inner city watching your face on TV and collecting your trading cards and looking up at you and thinking, wow, that could be me. What a great guy - and I know you wouldn’t be one of those arrogant players who got into fights and juiced. We need more players we can honestly idolize.”  
Poe’s face cracked a grin, his eyes going a bit distant as he seemed to be imagining it. Finn continued, still tossing the ball from palm to palm.

“And all these people here, in this tiny damn town. They’d listen to every game on the radio or TV and be like, _damn, that’s our boy! That’s our Rebels star!_ "

He said the last part in a exaggerated gruff New York accent, shaking his fist in imitation of how old men around here sometimes gesticulated. 

“You’d be something they’d be proud of. And they need it.” he finished, watching Poe smiling at him from across the cage. “That’s got more substance to me than climbing into a jet that was paid for with money that should go to social programs, to go into a dangerous place to fight someone else’s war.”

Poe blinked, processing the speech. Finn suddenly felt quite embarrassed and looked away. He’d let his passion and all the things he’d ever imagined and fantasized squeeze through his tight, reserved regarding-Poe-Dameron facade. 

“Wow,” Poe said finally, still looking into the distance in thought. “That was inspiring.”

Finn smiled bashfully.

“Ah, you know me. Full time school photographer, part time life coach.”

“I should have talked to you about this earlier,” Poe said, chuckling. _YES, and you shouldn’t have ditched me for baseball and idiotic jocks either,_ Finn wanted to say sarcastically. But at the same time, he didn’t. There wasn’t anything in the way Poe acted, the way he treated him, that indicated cruelty of any kind. He resolved to try and let things go more, right there in that moment, in the chilly darkness in the brightly lit batting cage.

“Listen,” Poe said after a moment. “There’s this party at this girl Amy’s house this Saturday, she’s dating someone on the team… anyway, you wanna come? The party before the inaugural game is a tradition.”

Finn was taken aback. He stopped tossing the ball back and forth in his hands, raising his eyebrows.

“Really? Uh, can I bring Rey?” he answered quickly. Well, there were Rey’s plans for this weekend. 

“Sure, the more the merrier,” Poe answered with a grin. “Should be fun, I take no responsibility for anything crazy or inappropriate that goes down, though. I’ll give you the address and stuff later.”

“Gotcha, gotcha…”

Finn personally would _love_ ‘something inappropriate’ to go down between himself and the stupidly attractive boy in front of him, and his ears felt warm. But he felt very flattered. He was very thankful too, that he’d mustered up the bravery and accepted this invitation to help Poe practice. Looking at the ball in his hand, he grinned, and looked at his old friend.

“So, are we gonna finish this, or what?”


	8. Glass of Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Rey discuss developments, and Ben Solo broods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 8! Another glimpse into Ben's inner thoughts. Check back tomorrow & Monday for new chapters! Exciting stuff just over the horizon....

Rey waited in the driveway of Aunt Maz’s house, awaiting a promised ride from Finn. He’d sounded enthusiastic even over text, and she wondered what brought this on. Either, she was happy for him. She was immensely thankful to have found him as a friend so fast in this town. Things may have not been so good otherwise. Especially since she’d gotten off a testy phone call with her mother earlier, reminding her even more about how much she appreciated the peace here.  
Shivering slightly in the misty coldness of the morning to which she was so unused to, Rey buried her small nose and chin into her fuzzy red scarf, sticking her hands deeper into her pockets. Her mind was still drifting every so often to the image of a certain boy in her American History class, sitting at ease on the other side of a treehouse, grinning as he looked out the window at the river past the trees. Rey was concerned about how fast she’d gone from rarely giving him much thought, to how much she’d replayed their interactions at his house yesterday. The fencing match, the treehouse jaunt, and then going back inside and finishing their project in high spirits…

As night fell and it had been time to go, Rey had packed up her backpack, looking around the big house.

“Parents aren’t home yet?” she asked, wondering if she’d somehow missed them coming in - this house was that big, for goodness sake. Aunt Maz would have had her head for not greeting them if they were around.

“Beats me,” Ben answered simply. “They’re out at events and things all the time. They make a good pair for a photo op at what have you.”

“Ah.” she said in understanding. “Well, thanks for having me.”

She smiled at him swinging her bag round her shoulder. He returned her smile with one of his own - she noted they came in increasing frequency, now. And that made her happy.

“Sure - let me walk you out.”

He hopped off his stool and scratched his arm, watching her as she made sure she had everything with her. Wrapping her scarf around her neck, she stared for the door with him following. 

“Sorry again that my dog attacked you,” he said from behind her, and Rey chuckled. 

“He was just very enthusiastic about having me over,” she said jokingly, and heard a low chuckle from Ben. They crossed the well lit, elegantly put together living room and into the foyer, past the portrait of the Solo family on the hall table which Rey had so closely examined before. She gave a small laugh as Ben gave a gargantuan step forward in order to be able to open the door for her. Everything about this more open version of him she was enchanted by. He was snarky, awkward, smile-y and clever, and Rey liked it very much.

“Well, see you at school tomorrow,” she said, after she’d stepped onto the portico, out of the doorway. Ben stood there, holding the door with his brows raised and slightly knitted as he shifted his weight to his other foot.

“See you,” he said after a moment. “Ah, good work.”

Rey gave him a jokey little salute. 

“You too - and in the fencing as well.”

She grinned and turned around, stepping down to the path and starting back down toward the street. She resisted the urge to turn around until she heard the door shut behind her, once she’d made it almost to the street. Then she allowed herself another peek at the enormous, beautiful house. Rey kind of hoped it wasn’t the last time she would be there.

This is what she had thought in and out about, that night after and in the morning as she readied for school. She felt other changes about her - spending an unusual length of time analyzing what to wear in the morning, blinking at her reflection in the mirror in the bathroom for too long, wondering what people thought of it. Unusual sorts of things for her to do. 

Finally, Finn’s burgundy car pulled in. He rolled down the window and leaned out, grinning. 

“Morning!” he called, with a wave. Brows furrowing in amusement, Rey hurried for the warmth of the passenger seat.

“Someone enjoyed their coffee this morning,” she commented as she shut the door, buckling up and eyeing her friend, who looked cheerful as he adjusted the volume of his radio, which played some lo fi indie hip hop.

“Guess you could say that, if I drank coffee,” he replied, “You don’t have plans this Saturday, do you?”

“Flattering of you to assume that, but yes, I don’t.”

“Awesome, there’s this party I wanna go to - let’s have some fun.”

Rey blinked. 

“Uh, sure, I guess. What party?”

“At the house of someone with the baseball team, everyone’s gonna be there, most likely.”

Rey squinted at her cheerful friend in his dark coat. He stared ahead, hands on the wheel, as if concentrating on the road, but he was aware of her eyes on him.

“Um, Poe invited me.”

A grin instantly popped onto Rey’s face. She shook her head to herself, looking out the window.

“I KNEW there was more to this!” she said triumphantly. “Invited? Please, do tell.”

Finn couldn’t help but grin too, as they turned a corner. He proceeded to tell a very surprised Rey about her encounter with a certain baseball star the previous night, at school.

“Holy shit,” she said after he finished his story. “Um, wow. That’s… a lot.”

“I know, right?! I really have you to thank, Rey,” he said gratefully, enthusiastically, grinning at his friend in the passenger seat. “Honestly, if you hadn’t dragged me into that house… I’m getting ahead of myself. But… it’s nice to talk. I missed him.”

“You gave him good advice.” she decided.

“You think?”

Rey nodded confidently, watching Finn’s genuine smile as he looked back ahead, clearly thinking about being reunited with his friend. It made her smile too.

“I’m really happy for you,” she replied truthfully. “And yes, I’ll come to the party and be your designated driver.”

“Wow, thanks! You’re becoming every more useful with the second,” Finn said cheerfully, winking at her. “Oh yeah, how did your evening go with Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Handsome?"

Rey chuckled at that, knowing the event would come up at some point. 

“Well, more interesting than you’d think,” she mused. “Their house is insane, I should mention…”

And now it was Rey’s turn to tell a story. Finn seemed intrigued, truly. 

“So... yeah.” she finished awkwardly, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear as she looked at the streets they were passing.

“Talk about eventful!” Finn replied, looking surprised. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Solo Jr. smile.”

“Me either,” Rey said softly, smiling into her lap as she thought of him - grinning, laughing, at ease. It really went to show what you missed when you underestimated the quiet kids. When she looked up, she noticed Finn was looking at her. It was his turn to raise his eyebrows slyly.

“So that’s how it is,” he said after a moment, grinning and looking back out at the street.

“How what is?” Rey replied, looking up.

“Someone’s got a crush on the mayor’s kid!”

“I just met him,” she said quickly. “I… barely know anything about him!”

“Except all those intimate personal details you guys shared with one another.”

“It was just one little moment,” she assured him, not knowing if she was telling the truth or not. “Like I said, I barely know him. He’s… intense. I mean, you’ve seen him.”  
Noting how much she’d been talking, she shut up and peeked over at Finn.

“Whatever you say…” he replied a moment later, raising his eyebrows as he made another turn. Rey shook it off and steered the discussion toward their plans for the game, when they’d show up and so on. She tried to put her mind off the embarrassing exchange that had just occurred, and focus on this weekend and next week, but it still stuck around in the back of her brain, even as they pulled into school and walked up to the school building.

As they headed for class, Rey looked up at the big “GO REBELS!” banner she’d noticed on her first day there. She thought of Poe Dameron and the pressure he must be under. At least she wasn’t dealing with that, she thought to herself with a touch of weariness, as they climbed the stairs to the next floor. 

Upon arriving at history class, Rey was acutely aware that Ben wasn’t in his normal seat. In fact, he didn’t come in till a few minutes after Mr. Threepio had already started class. With his backpack slung over his shoulder and his broad back hunched in slightly, he hurried into class, avoiding eye contact with anyone, considering most of the class had raised their eyes to see who it was coming in late. He mumbled a quick apology to Mr. Threepio as he passed behind him and made a beeline for his desk.  
When he sat, he hurriedly pulled his binder out of his backpack, seeming very concentrated on only what was in front of him. Pausing for a moment, his eyes flicked to Rey, who had been quietly watching him. She gave him a small smile, but he only blinked, and quickly looked back forward again. Brows unintentionally knitting, Rey turned back to the front of the room again, wondering for the reason for the frosty treatment. Assuming it was just due to his embarrassment at being late, she brushed it off and made a mental note to say a hello when class ended. 

But once the bell rang, Ben practically sprang out of his seat, scooping up the contents of his desktop with a delft motion of his long arm, and walking straight toward the door before Rey had even moved to pack up her things. She sat there for a moment, a frown finding its way onto her fair features. Feeling somewhat confused, and yes, disappointed, she rose and packed her own bag, wondering what was possibly the matter. Perhaps it was just a one time thing, she reminded herself. But she couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t even bothered to give her a look. She felt it was silly to think so, but she’d felt they’d built at least a little connection that previous night.  
Feeling moderately crestfallen, she picked up her backpack and exited with Finn, continuing to wonder why it had been like a switch had flipped and Ben had returned to the quiet, reserved, mysterious person he’d been to her as of a few days ago.

-

Night at the immense Solo house - and late. It was dark in the hallway of the bedrooms, Ben noted when he opened his door and stepped out into the hallway with his bare feet. Wearing only boxers and an old t shirt from some art fair as was his usual sleeping attire, he crept quietly along the darkness like a ghost, barely making noise with his steps. _He was already pale enough,_ he reasoned with himself darkly. Scratching the back of his head, he made his down the stairs and through the hall with the semicircle window, showing the pitch dark of night, and walked into the kitchen for a glass of water. 

The little red light up clock on the stove in the dark kitchen told him that it was a little before midnight. Like a typical night of his, he was in, up late in his room watching old movies. Sometimes he had Hux would get together and hang out, but nights like this were not unusual. As he walked deeper into the kitchen, he became aware that there was still a light on in the living room. Not the main ones, but someone had left a lamp on. He made a note to go turn it off as he opened the fridge and retrieved the pitcher.

“Han, is that you?” the sound of a female voice said from the living room. Ah, Ben thought to himself, the light now having an explanation. 

“It’s Ben,” he answered, filling up his cup. Replacing the pitcher and closing the fridge door with his elbow, he took a long sip from his cup as he walked through the dark dining room into the living room.

Over the back of the white couch, he could see the head of his mother, Leia, her hair down from its usual bun style into a long braid of greying brown. She turned round to look at him.

“Thought it might be you,” she said softly in her husky sort of voice, giving him a small smile. “Always a night owl.”

“What are you doing still up?” he asked, taking a few steps forward so he was level with the side of the couch. Leaning his weight on one leg, he took another drink and watched his mother. She had her makeup off and her usual work dresses and power suits were replaced with her bathrobe and slippers. Normally, his mother had a very sharp, professional look - when she was Mayor Solo. Right now, though, she was just Mom.

Leia Solo was a widely admired woman. She could go from photo-op worthy smile to stern gaze very easily, which is partially why she made such a good politician - she was diplomatic, intelligent, gentle, but strong. When she talked, people listened. Though he struggled with his relationship with his parents as a unit, he always had a closer connection with his mother, probably because she was the more nurturing, perceptive, and understanding one. 

“Oh, just some budget paperwork that has to be approved ASAP...”

She yawned, pushing her small reading glasses up her nose and smiled warmly at her son. She gestured for him to sit on the couch beside her, and he did so, finishing his glass of water and putting it on the table.

“Feels like we haven’t talked one on one in a while,” his mother said, flipping past to another page in her packet, full of text and data tables. 

“We talked this morning.”

She gave him a disapproving look, a smile coming to her face. 

“Always with the sass, just like your father.” she commented. “As little as you like to be compared. But it’s true.”

Ben generally thought of himself as different as could be from his father, but he said nothing, just gave his mother a small, mostly artificial smile before looking away, into the darkness of the rest of the room, not wanting to think about his dad.

“What were you up to yesterday, then? I take it everything went fine with the electrician.”

“Yeah, he got it done pretty quick. And I had my project partner for American history over, we had to work on a thing for class.” he explained, tactfully leaving out the part about the fencing match, and the near knocking out of said project partner by Chewie, who was probably asleep on the floor in Ben’s parents room, with Han, his favorite person. And the spilling of his heart to her in his old treehouse, something he was already immensely regretting. _More on those regrets later._

“Who was your partner?”

Ben wanted to sigh, not desiring discuss this topic with his mother, but he held back. She was right, they hadn’t really talked much lately.

“This new girl,” he said after a moment, running his hand through his shaggy hair. “Rey. She’s old Maz’s niece.”

“Ah, of course, your father mentioned her,” Leia replied interestedly, nodding at Ben and referencing their family friend. “What’s she like?”

 _Beautiful, intelligent, feisty_.... way too good for him? Of course, he said none of these things. But just picturing her angular face and petite, supple body in his head made him want to pull out his own hair. 

“Fine, I guess,” he settled pathetically. “Nice enough.”

Leia nodded slowly, looking back at her papers. 

“Don’t stay up too late, mom,” he said a moment later, chuckling at her. She smiled back. “Or should I say, Mayor.”

“I’ll try. Such as life with this kind of power. Get some sleep yourself, sweetheart. And, get a haircut.”

She raised her hand and touched her son’s shaggy locks with a little amused disapproval in her face. Giving a little chuckle, he pulled away. His mother continued to watch him, resting a hand on her cheek.

“Everything okay in your world?” she asked, softly as she looked at him. There was genuine concern there, but Ben was not feeling particularly soothed by it. _I want to stop thinking about this girl, I can barely deal with school sometimes, and you and Dad’s arguments keep me up at night,_ would have been the true answer. But in usual soft spoken Ben Solo nature, Ben just shrugged kind of vaguely.

“Sure,” was his quiet answer. Leia nodded silently, taking one of his big pale hands and squeezing them with one of her smaller, softer ones. He gave a small smile and rose, making to go back upstairs.

“Oh, Ben?” she asked as he was about to exit the living room, causing him to stop and turn around. His mother looked very small, sitting at the corner of the couch in her bathroom and glasses, in the shallow cocoon of light given off by the lamp. She watched him with her warm, dark eyes.

“Hm?”

“You’re coming to the inaugural game with us, next week, alright? They’ve got me set up in the box and everything.”

Ben didn’t try to conceal his feelings about this particular development. He sighed, rubbing his hands with his face. When he looked back up he saw his mother giving him a stern look over her glasses, papers in her hands.

“It’s a baseball game, we’re not forcing you to be tortured,” she said with a note of dryness. “Buck up about it, please, we want to make a good impression.”

Ben considered for a moment whether to fight it or not but decided at the end to just take it, not looking for a irritated interrogation from his mother about why he couldn’t “get more into school spirit” and “appreciate the enthusiasm” of these things more. He conceded, despite the fact that such a loud, forced worship session of the jocks was the farthest away from his idea of fun.

“Alright,” he replied. “Goodnight.”

His mother, looking pleased at her victory, gave him a smile and a wave and turned back to her paperwork. Ben had no idea what to conclude of the interaction. At least it didn’t leave him with a bitter taste in his mouth as confrontations with his parents sometimes did. 

Back up the stairs, back down the quiet hallway and to his little refuge, for Ben. He shut his door, shuffling to his bed, which was lit only by the warm brightness of the lamp next to his bed and a strip of moonlight from the window. His mind tumbled with thoughts he had been trying to repress and irritation he didn’t want to deal with.

Shutting his laptop screen, Ben put the computer on the side table and laid down on top of his half-made bed, reaching over and flicking off the lamp so he could sulk in darkness. The little bit of blueish moonlight hung over his angular face as he stared up at the ceiling, his arms folded behind his head. 

Yesterday had been such a bizarre blip - such a barely believable departure from his usual gloomy monotony that he may as well have dreamt it. But he knew it was real, he definitely did, for he could remember the way his hand felt on Rey’s back after he’d helped her sit up, the way her small hand felt within his own when he assisted her in standing, and the flutter he felt in his chest when she smiled at him and made him laugh. And he wished he could forget it, because it was stuck in his brain like thick gum to a sidewalk. 

As he had darted out of class that morning for the express purpose of avoiding speaking to her, he could feel the waves of hurt confusion radiating from her - they must have been, because he’d noted how she furrowed her brows slightly when she’d looked away that first time he caught her eye, after coming in late. This was also purposeful, to avoid having to make smalltalk. And the reason for all this was because he was unprepared for - afraid of - how quickly he’d gone to admiring her attractiveness from afar and leaving it at that, to feeling a genuine connection to her, letting down his usually tightly secured walls and giving her intimate details about his concerns and frustrations. Such things he kept usually behind a lock and buried the key deep inside himself. He was bad with emotions, that was clear, s he hid them. That’s how he had operated for a long time, and it worked. In general. 

But there was something about her. Something inquisitive in the way she looked at him, genuine in how she smiled. He sensed she could see through his walls, saw him as more complicated than just “quiet tall kid who likes to draw”, which is what most figured about him. Fencing with her had been in another league entirely, considering the only person he’d ever bouted with was his coach. And that man was a lot more predictable, and obviously, not so attractive and intriguing as Rey. Sparring with Rey, he’d felt like his body was pulsing with some sort of energy - it was a new feeling, intriguing, a kind of strange passion. He thought about her full, pink lips, her athletic frame, her tan skin, how her small waist curved into her hips, and he shivered. _He wanted her_ \- an uncomfortable realization. He certainly did not want to want anyone, frankly. It made things too complicated, too emotional.

And then there was this whole going to the game business. Much less engrossing to think about. Sighing, he rolled onto his side and folded his knees in a bit. Naturally and just like that, things had gone from dreamily sweet to confusing and distressing. He wasn’t sure what to do about any of the situations. Instead of making the mature move and figuring out how to manage it all, he simply buried his tall frame beneath his blankets, much as he tended to bury feelings and emotions, and closed his eyes, trying to focus on getting some sleep, and not all the mess that was right then tumbling around in his brain.


	9. The Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Rey head for the Saturday party. Drama ensues?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday! Here's another chapter to brighten your week. Check back tomorrow for another.

Saturday night came soon enough for Rey, who, by the time night fell, was resolutely not feeling like a party. She’d gotten into another argument with her mother over the phone and generally was not in a very good mood. A little residual confusion and annoyance from her encounter, or lack of one, rather, with Ben on Friday, was sticking around in her brain. Her annoyance at the situation made her think about it even more, and then there was her own anger at herself for not being able to get over it. 

_So, she was attracted to him_ , big deal, she thought to herself as she sat in Aunt Maz’s little living room in an armchair, with her arms crossed over her chest. She didn’t intend to be, and she didn’t want to be. The cognitive dissonance caused by these conflicts in her brain made the whole situation worse.   
Her tiny aunt herself was sitting on the couch, her legs not long enough to touch the ground when sitting, and watching _Murder She Wrote_ reruns though her enormous round glasses with a mug of hot cocoa.

Rey did not want to be thinking about what she was thinking about. It might be good to get out and get to the party where she could be distracted, but simultaneously, she did not feel like watching a bunch of her classmates get drunk and being a big bummer around Finn. For his sake, she tried to cheer up about it. Her outfit, picked out without much thought, reflected her mood - baggy sweatshirt and her usual shoes, her hair thrown back in a lazy braid. It looked like an outfit that someone who did not want to much attention paid to them would wear.

Suddenly, a knock at the door, and Rey rose. Shuffling to the door, she opened it to find Finn, as expected. He, unlike her, had clearly tried with his attire. A shiny leather jacket was draped over his arm, reflecting the unusual warmth of the night, and she could smell a wiff of cologne off of him when he stepped closer. His usual enthusiastic grin weakened a little when he looked her up and down.

“That’s what you’re wearing?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Um,” Rey mumbled, looking down at her sweatshirt. It did have a small stain on the bottom of the pocket that she hadn’t noticed. And she hadn’t exactly brushed her hair much before throwing it back.

“I’m coming in,” he said a moment later, holding up his hand and walking past her into the carpeted hallway. “And I’m gonna find something better for you to wear,”

“What?” 

She looked at him wearily, still holding the door. 

“You’re my wing-woman!” 

“And that means….?”

Finn looked at her with a bit of disapproving pity in his expression.

“I want you to look confident,” he said, reaching over and draping his jacket over the banister of the stairs. “Like you deserve to be.”

“ _You do look a little defeated to be going to a party, dear!_ ” Aunt Maz’s voice called from the living room. Rey looked between the direction of that room and Finn, who was repressing laughter, in disbelief. 

“You’re kidding me.” she told him firmly, though she realized that he was right. She’d agreed to do this thing with him. And he had clearly tried hard to look nice. His patterned button down shirt, jeans, and boots looked straight out of a men’s fashion magazine. Finn was always pretty stylish.

“You’re so pretty, come on, I know you have something a little more showy than this,” he said earnestly. “I want to roll in there like… you know. Please, for me?” 

Rey gave a sigh. She now truly did not feel like this at all, but - for Finn, she gave a begrudging nod. 

“I’m not going to this thing to meet a date, for the record,” she said flatly after he gave a celebratory grin and started happily up Aunt Maz’s staircase. She followed behind with slightly less energy.

“I need cute arm candy, though!”

“Says the guy with a huge crush on a _guy_ …”

Finn looked behind him and gave her a playful scowl. 

“Don’t remind me. Okay, is this one yours?”

He peeked into the quarter open door of her small room, at the top of the stairs to the left. Rey nodded, following him in. 

Her room at Aunt Maz’s was still not fully unpacked. Some posters sat rolled up in the corner, she not having gotten around to hanging them, and some plastic bins of her things from her old room were still standing around, gathering dust. Finn paid them no mind, however, making a beeline for the closet, when he pulled open, and began to rifle through the small collection things on hangers, which she reserved for the nicer clothes she wore more rarely, her fencing gear, and some jackets and coats.  
Finn pushed past her snow white fencing jacket, a newly purchased parka for deeper cold and her blue raincoat.

“Do you own any _dresses?_ ” he asked, a tinge of concern in his voice.

“The last couple things,” she told him. “I don’t really wear them much, though…” 

She owned a couple low key ensembles reserved mostly for things like the offhand school dance, or wedding or funeral. 

“Why, you have a great body for it! Okay, this looks promising…”

Finn gently removed something from the last hanger - a dress she’d bought for some function she never ended up going to, and forgot to return. It was a plain dark blue dress with long sleeves, that hugged through the high waist. He smiled encouragingly at her. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever worn this,” she said, giving it an unsure look. Finn laughed.

“Well, here’s your chance. You have tights, right? Go on, change, I’ll look away.”

He put a hand over his eyes, still grinning, and sat down on her bed. With another sigh, Rey removed her sweatshirt, tossing it on her chair, and undid the zipper on her jeans. Removing a very rarely worn pair of black knit tights from her closet, she slid them over her slim legs and pulled the stretchy dress over her head.   
“Ok, you happy?” she demanded, adjusting the sleeves. Finn removed his hand, and his face lit up. 

“You look great,” he said enthusiastically, getting to his feet, as Rey stared at herself in long, narrow mirror hanging on the wall. It wasn’t horrible, in fact, it flattered her frame, but she did not feel confident enough for this outfit right now. Finn seemed to be looking for something on her desk.

“Ah ha!” he said triumphantly, picking up the small silver tube of mascara lying on the edge of the piece of furniture. “You’ve got a pretty pretty face, my friend, don’t be afraid to enhance it.” 

She accepted it wordlessly from him, knowing it was worthless to argue, and leaned forward in the mirror to apply it. When she rose back up, Finn was there behind her, and handed her a hairbrush. He gently picked up the end of her braid and worked off the elastic, pulling it apart and running his fingers through the waviness it had created.

“Am I your doll?” she asked, looking at her own reflection in the mirror and blinking.

“I always did want to play with dolls,” Finn mused, smiling as he fixed her hair. “‘Darn the pesky gendered upbringing they force on us. See, now you look even more excellent.”

He smiled at her reflection in the mirror as she brushed her hair to a little more smoothness and arranged it somewhat around her angular face. She gave him a small smile back.

“Thanks, Finn,” she told him. “I’ll try to be a bit more fun. This is important to you, I get that.”

“That’s my girl. Come on then, let’s roll.”

Chuckling, she scooped up her olive jacket and boots, and followed him out, flicking off the light. They went down the stairs and after Rey had bade Aunt Maz goodnight and picked up the keys to the station wagon, she shut the door. 

“So, are you nervous?” she asked, as they walked down the stairs and down the path of the weedy front yard toward the big old car. Finn had walked on over from his house, and they’d agreed since Rey was designated driver for the evening, that they would take Aunt Maz’s car. It was a warm night, Rey thought, realizing her coat might not even be necessary. 

“What reason would I have be to feel nervous?” Finn said evenly, sliding into the passenger seat of the long, dorky looking car. Rey chuckled, sliding the keys into the ignition. Checking behind her, she pulled out of the driveway.

“Where are we even going, anyway?”

“This girl Amy’s place. She’s a junior, but her brother’s in our grade. This red haired kid. Goes by some kind of funny nickname, I can’t remember.”

Rey blinked, as she paused at a stop sign.

“That wouldn’t be Hux, would it?” she asked, picturing the fox faced sort of boy who sat at the back of her Physics class, and who, of all people, was Ben’s best friend. 

“I think you’re right. Yeah, that’s her then. She’s dating someone on the baseball team, Sam or Jason or… one of them, I don’t know, they all bleed together.”

“Except the one…” Rey muttered as she turned the corner. “Okay, tell me where to go.”

“I heard that. Right, left here. It’s on the Grove, so it’s a little far.” Finn answered, and pointed. 

“The Grove?” 

“Just a street on the edge of Resistance. It’s one with all these farmhouses that have a lot of land around them, by the river. Most houses around here don’t, but these are the old ones, dating back to when there was like, plantations and rich people’s vacation houses here, back in the 1800s.” 

“That makes sense, for a party…” Rey reasoned. “I hope I can find my way back in the dark, when you’re drunk…”

“I don’t drink that much,” Finn assured her. “Usually.” 

Rey gave a small sigh, but smiled again at her friend. Finn was always witty and sassy when he spoke, it made her laugh. They drove for some way onward, chatting about this and that, before Finn pointed Rey in the direction of the street known as the Grove. The houses here were less matching and manicured, many seemed to have long driveways and property around them. She looked out the window at the few and far between farmhouse-style homes with their windows lit up in the distance. They were pretty, but very unlike the very normal, close together suburban single family homes back closer to where she and Finn lived. The house number in question must have been one at the very edge of the road, because they were passing remote mailbox after remote mailbox. It ended up being the very last on the end of the dead end street. 

The property’s long dirt driveway pulled off the road, and one drove through a break in a long, farm style wood fence to enter the property, which, in the dark, only looked two vast expanses of grassy field. It was punctured at the moment closer toward the house by a large number of cars that had pulled off the road to park in it. Unrolling the window, Rey could hear the sound of music playing loudly at the big, old style house, which had white paneling and two levels of porches like you might see in the South, with many lights on inside.

“Guess this’ll work,” Rey muttered, bracing herself for the bump as she pulled the car off the driveway and onto the grass, parking at the edge of where the rest of the cars were clumped. She wanted to make sure she wouldn’t end up being trapped because someone’s Range Rover was in the way, or something. She rolled the window back up and powered down the car. 

“Have you ever been here?” Rey inquired, looking at the house sitting to their right with a brow raised. 

“No, but I’ve heard of it.”

The two got out of the car and into the warm night, emerging into some ankle high grass. They started back toward the driveway, in the direction of the house. 

“Heard of it?” she asked unsurely.

“Yeah, I mean, supposedly they have a lot of parties here, because the parents travel a lot, and it's so far from the nearest neighbors - less chance of someone calling the cops.”

Rey blinked again, feeling even more wary by the moment.

“Relax, relax,” Finn assured her. “We’re gonna have fun, don’t worry.”

He threw his arm around her shoulders as they walked down the driveway, the sound of thumping music getting louder and louder as they approached the pretty house. Otherwise, the surrounding fields were silent, minus the sounds of crickets, and the subtle rush of the river, in the distance, somewhere to their right in the darkness. Overhead, an inky sky full of stars twinkled - many, many more than you could see back in Arizona, unless you drove out into the desert. 

“Any of your friends gonna be here tonight? Besides Poe, I mean.”

“I don’t know if we’ve progressed into friend territory, or not,” Finn answered. “Or back into it? Whatever. It’s possible but I’m not sure.”

“You find friends everywhere, let’s be honest…”

Finn chuckled. It was true, though, he was extraordinarily adept at having a very large rotating group of friends, as funny and friendly as he was. She reminded herself to consider herself lucky that she had gotten so close to him so fast. 

All quaint white paneling and two sets of porches that wrapped all the way around the house, the home of that kid Hux and his sister, Amy, was not as big as the Solo mansion, but made up for it with the amount of land it seemed to have around it. The house sat closer to the river, and seemed to have at least half a mile of its own land going around it in all other directions. Now that they were up close, loud music was clearly to be heard from inside the house, and there was obviously much activity going on in the backyard. They walked on a path round the house to where it seemed to be occurring. 

The back of this white farmhouse was very woodsy - lots of trees and a big stone patio out back that terraced with the downhill incline of the backyard. There was a jacuzzi and tables, benches and other places to sit, many of which were occupied. It really was the optimum place to have a party, Rey observed. And a party was being had, for sure. There probably fifty people hanging out in the backyard, sitting around a big firepit near the house, or crowding into the jacuzzi and laughing. A big group was engaged in what looked like beer pong on one of the lower terraces. Upbeat, thumping club style music playing from somewhere as a soundtrack. Red cups could be seen in many hands of teenagers and young people that walked around, lounged around, danced and generally made ruckus. Rey recognized very few by name, but a decent amount by face.

“See anyone interesting?” she asked Poe, as they stopped at the edge of the patio, looking out at the loud activity going on. Instantly, she felt apprehensive. The much livelier and outgoing Finn probably was much better at having fun at these things. Rey, quieter, more of a “watcher”, felt less at ease here, not to mention the fact that she knew borderline nobody here, and was already not feeling the best.

She watched Finn as his eyes scanned the scene before he located a gaggle of his many friends, grouped around the second stone terrace, talking and lounging. Grabbing Rey by the hand, he strode purposefully into the thick of it. She kept her other hand awkwardly in the pocket of her jacket, looking apprehensively around as they walked.  
Finn’s other acquaintances - friendly, energetic guy and girls, were clearly already having plenty of fun, and fun meaning drinks. They greeted the two of them both enthusiastically. Someone quickly got a red cup into Finn’s hand, Rey quickly declining. She wasn’t sure if she was definitely not feeling like drinking, or would accept one quickly to ease herself into the thick easier, if it hadn’t been for her having to drive later.

She stood somewhat awkwardly at the edge of the group, feeling a bit like an uneasy little girl, as Finn engaged with the other people, still holding her hand. Someone passed him a plastic shot glass full of clear liquid. 

“Bottoms up, ya’ll,” he announced to the group, giving Rey a special wink, before downing it in one gulp (something Rey was incapable of doing without profuse gagging), before chasing it with a gulp from his red cup. The group let out a cheer and Finn gave a massive grin. 

“I’m gonna find a non-alcoholic drink,” she said into Finn’s ear a few minutes later, whilst he was in conversation. “Don’t worry about looking for me, have fun.”  
He looked at her, eyebrows raised. She could smell the alcohol on him, mixing with his pleasant, masculine cologne and the crisp leather smell of his jacket.

“Are you sure?” he asked, breaking away from the conversation for a moment. She smiled at him, recognizing that he needed to loosen up and have some fun. Wondering offhandedly where Poe Dameron could be found, she gave him a pat on the shoulder and small smile. 

“Keep an eye out for your team captain,” she replied, winking and walking away, as if she actually had a plan as to what to do. What she’d said had been more of a cop out. She felt weird, hanging out there with all his tipsy, fun friends, on top her initial unease. Resolving to indeed get some kind of drink that wasn’t something-proof or any percent alcohol by volume, she made for the large white house, feeling out of place in this place where she felt like a stranger and this dress she rarely wore. She knew Finn had had good intentions dressing her up, but she knew he was bound to find someone more fun to let loose with soon enough. And she’d been right. But she did not hold it against him - he was always the sweetest guy.

Sidling through the half open sliding door at the edge of the patio into the house, she moved around the perimeter of the living room, which was busy with kids engaged in various party activities - smoking, drinking a bit too much, making out on whatever surface was closest. After almost getting knocked over by a rather drunk jock stumbling out of a doorway, she hurried down a hallway which she hoped held a kitchen.

Her hunch had been right, and she found herself in low lit, mercifully quiet room that was the roomy kitchen of this house. Going with its farmhouse look, the cabinets were all light colored wood in a vintage style complimenting the white wash walls. A big island in the middle held a big blue cooler and a bunch of empty cardboard cases from six packs of beer. Rey felt relieved, the unfamiliar crowds of other rooms of the house having unnerved her unusually. She slid her jacket off her shoulders and laid it on one of the stools that sat next to the island, and went for the big cooler. Getting up on her tiptoes, she peeked inside, finding a couple of lonely cans of soda sitting in half melted ice bath. She reached in and quickly retrieved one, shaking the water off her hand as she put it on the table. Tucking a bit of hair behind her ear, she punctured its lip and it let out a distinct hissing snap as the gas inside was released. Rey took a solitary sip, shifting her weight onto her other foot.

It was quiet in the room, and the loud music from the living room and outside was distinctly muffled in here. She relaxed a bit, taking another sip of the icy beverage, when the snappy, fizzy sound of someone lighting a lighter somewhere behind her caught her attention. Turning around slightly, she made note of the fact that she was indeed not the only person in the room. Standing half in the darker part of the room, there was a teenage boy. The snap had come from his lighter, as it appeared, because he was in the process of lighting a cigarette, his head, covered in neatly parted red hair, was leaned down. When he finished lighting the cigarette in his pale hands, he looked up, catching Rey’s eye. 

The boy had a thin face, sunken in sort of cheeks and hooded eyes. His hair was parted compulsively and neatly, and to add to his sort of dark appearance, he wore a black turtleneck under a grey jacket on a stocky frame about Rey’s height. It was the other person whose house this was, that guy Hux. He made no expression at her, simply regarded her for a few moments with a pair of light colored eyes, before turning a bit and leaning back against the counter, exhaling smoke. Rey looked away too, feeling a little awkward that she had noticed him before, but turned back to the island, taking another sip of the soda and trying to look out of the room’s high windows that looked out onto the backyard. A glum sort of expression coming onto her features, she rested an elbow against the table, and looked out vacantly, upset that her own earlier apprehensions about coming were right. 

Just then, behind her, someone entered to the kitchen.

“Someone just broke the hall vase,” said a low voice that made Rey instantly wish she was back outside standing awkwardly. Not being able to help herself, she turned her head half around, just to make sure it really was him.

Standing with his arms crossed over his broad chest in a grey t shirt and dark jeans, across from his friend Hux, was Ben. She noticed with surprise that he had gone and gotten his shaggy black hair trimmed somewhat. It now had more of a shape, longer at the top and shorter at the sides and back, though it maintained a messy energy. It exposed a piercing she didn’t notice before that he had on the side of his ear, and she was jolted by how attractive she found the new look.

“Wow, you actually listened to the mayor…” Hux said, raising his eyes lackadaisically to his friend’s change of style, after taking a drag of his cigarette, the smell of which had reached Rey by now. Ben waved the cigarette smoke out of his face and shrugged, sticking his hands into his pocket.

“Don’t ask me why,” he mumbled. “Your vase is still broken, though.”

Ben scratched the side of his face with a long fingered hands when his eyes scanned the room and finally landed on Rey. He gave a surprised start, looking between Rey and Hux like he didn’t know what was going on.

“Hello, Ben,” Rey said coolly, turning around fully, her hand still holding on to her frosty soda can. Ben still looked very surprised. His dark eyes flicked from her hair to her dress, and back to Hux, who was still standing and silently smoking. 

“Did you-” he started at Hux, but Rey interrupted. 

“I’m here with another friend,” she explained, putting her can back onto the table behind and crossing her arms in front of her chest. She wasn’t sure why she was like this - mildly defensive, making for some kind of confrontation. All her negative feelings for the night and for him seemed to combine into it, she figured, as she watched Ben unsmilingly. Ben blinked, rubbing above his upper lip.

“So why are you here, then?” he asked finally, still looking kind of shell shocked. 

“Just getting a drink.”

It was a little curt. She looked away, a little uncomfortable, a hand nervously going to twiddle a strand of her hair. The mood was unlike her. 

“So you’re Rey.” 

This was the voice of the soft spoken, mysterious Hux. The red haired, pale faced boy was looking at her. He pulled a silver flask out of his back pocket, taking a swig. It was a strange gesture for a teenage boy.

“Guilty as charged,” Rey answered, eyes flicking to Ben for a moment, before going back to the person who had addressed her. Either she’d been talked about, or he’d heard about her on the grapevine, or he’d read about her in the paper. So much for that anonymity.

Ben was still watching her, this she could feel. She wished she could admire less his new haircut and the way his arms looked in the shirt he was currently wearing. When she looked at him next, he was leaning his shoulder against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, too. His face betrayed little emotion, and he looked away a moment later. Softening somewhat, Rey allowed her arms to fall, and leaned them back against the table.

“So what are you doing here?” she asked, parroting his words back at him. It was a bit like a verbal stab of a fencing foil. She waited for his parry, which was not coming. 

“What the girl means,” Hux spoke up in a low voice, amused. “Is that you clearly look out of place at this thing, Solo.” 

He smirked, his cigarette between his fingers near his lips. Rey frowned.

“You know my name,” she remarked defensively, disliking being spoken about in the third person. “You’re Hux, right?”

He seemed a little taken aback by the remark. When he answered, he turned more toward her, speaking in a cool tone.

“Huxley.”

“Like the writer.”

He blinked, clearly surprised that she inferred correctly, and gave a small nod, before looking back down and taking another drag on his cigarette. Rey felt a bit of triumph; clearly he had not thought so much of her. Giving a small smile, she looked back at Ben, who had been watching her.

“I’m just here with him,” he explained, in answer to her earlier question, tipping his head slightly to his friend. Rey studied his long nose, his angular jaw. 

“Enjoying yourself?”

They stared at one another for a moment. The strange tension was making Rey feel crazy. Deep within her, she wished they could shake it off and go back to the lighthearted, fun air they’d developed at his house the other day. But that was not going to happen till one of them let their guards down - if ever.

“As much as I could be, I guess,” he answered finally, a little apprehensively. Rey found everything about the situation, from her own bizarre attraction to Ben, to her annoyance with him in general, to this unfamiliar environment - somewhat infuriating. With an angry sort of expelling of breath at her own dysfunction, she scooped up her soda can and her coat, and stalked away from the quiet pair.

“Wait-” Ben’s voice said from behind her, causing her to stop in her tracks. She turned her head, blinking, her confused annoyance melting away for a moment. He looked at her with his mouth half open and his brows knitted slightly, like he was unsure, concerned and worried at the same time. It was hard to detect the concrete emotion in it. He faltered after a moment and closed his mouth.

“Um, never mind,” he mumbled, stepping back and rubbing the back of his head awkwardly, his tall frame folding in on itself a bit. Rey’s face fell, and she walked out without another word. _What had she been expecting_ , she wondered, feeling an immensely disappointed sort of feeling settle over her shoulders.


	10. Two Confused Hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn makes his reappearance, and Rey gets help from an unlikely source.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read on to find out how the strange party ends... 10 chapters now, wow! We're getting down home stretch though, so, thank you to everyone that's enjoying this so far, I'm glad I can make you smile!. Check back again tomorrow and Thursday for more xo

Rey spent the remainder of the party awkwardly sitting around, looking at her phone or disinterestedly watching the mess of the events. Finn was in there somewhere, but she did not particularly feel like digging through the drunkery to find him, having to fake a smile and act all energetic for his benefit. She could only hope that he was holed up in some closet with Poe Dameron somewhere, the thought bringing a small smile to her face. 

Rey was sitting on a wooden lawn chair with her back to the party, eyes closed and nearly falling asleep because of the lateness of the hour, when someone came over looking for her.

“Are you Rey?” the person, a medium height, large busted girl that Rey vaguely remembered was named Ming, said to her, louder than necessary due to probably intoxication.

“That’s me,” Rey confirmed for the second time that night, blinking at her.   
“You came with Finn?”

“Yeah, is everything alright?” Rey asked, getting to her feet, alarm within her rising.

“Oh, yeah,” Ming slurred, tucking some black hair behind her ear. “He’s just passed out in the living room… thought maybe y’should take him home…”

She shrugged vaguely and stumbled off. Rey, shaking off her tiredness, quickly made a beeline for the house. Cutting through the various people in the hallway and by the entrance to the living room, she quickly scanned for her friend’s dark skinned form. She quickly spotted him - he was lying on the couch, his head lolled into a nearby pillow, and a button undone from his shirt. Distressed, Rey ran over to him. The various people around did not seem to be paying much attention. _Didn’t they know you were supposed to turn passed out people onto their stomachs?_ she wondered incredulously, as she bent over Finn. He could have died - Rey kicked herself for not paying more attention to him.

“Hey, Finn,” she said firmly to him, using her hands to turn his head back up, using one to lift it slightly from behind. “Finn, it’s me. Wake up.”

The smell of alcohol was pungent. Unfettered, Rey pressed on, patting his cheek with some force. A moment later, his eyes slowly opened, he squinted the dim light of the room out of his eyes, raising a hand weakly to cover them.

“Hey…” he mumbled, before dropping his hand, his head lolling back again. He was out cold, Rey confirmed grimly, and in no condition to move himself. She looked around the room quickly, trying to make sense of a familiar face among the haze. The frustration balling up in her, she realized there was only one thing left to do. 

With a grunt and most of her strength, she shoved at Finn’s big shoulder till she got him on his stomach. The last thing they needed right now was him choking on his own vomit. Rey really didn’t want to be that person calling Finn’s mother from the emergency room. But she did need to get him out of here, fast. And the only way to do that was to get help. There were only two people at this party who could do that for her - Poe Dameron, and Ben Solo. She dearly hoped she’d find the first before she located the second. 

Attempting to keep a cool head, she circulated around the first floor, coming up blank. Sliding back outside, where the party was still in full swing, she scuttled around the crowd, looking for Poe’s curls, but they were unable to be found. One person she did she, however, was a familiar looking girl with long red hair - her face looked a bit like someone else Rey was looking for too. The girl was engaged in very heavy tipsy flirtation with a tall, broad shouldered boy with a buzzcut. Having no time for manners, Rey pushed herself into the conversation.

“Amy?” Rey asked the girl loudly, squinting into her face in the dark. The girl, looking confused as to why this random person was trying to speak to her, gave Rey a bewildered look.

“Yeah?” Amy answered loudly, putting a hand on her hip, which was thrown out.

“Where’s your brother?”

This made Amy even more confused. 

“I dunno,” she answered, frowning, as if her brother was something she didn’t want to think about at the time. “Probably upstairs with his weird friend, I’m not his fucking mother…”

Amy laughed a little shrilly, the buzz cut jock joining in. Having gotten what she wanted, Rey left the vacant drunks behind, and headed back into the house, again. Pausing for a moment at the foot of the large staircase, she thought again of Finn, and pressed on. This was something she really, really did not want to do, but she needed to help her friend. So she took the stairs at full speed, thumping up them with her boots, and arrived at the dark second floor. Most of the rooms had no light coming from the bottom, so she headed down the hall for the ones that did.

Not bothering to knock, she pulled open one door to find two teeangers engaged in something she really did not need to see on the floor there, and slammed it quickly shut again, cringing. The next door, she opened more gingerly, and found, to her relief, it to contain no aroused teenagers, and the person she was looking for. 

Hux’s room was large and covered in posters, but she did not have time to really take a good look around. She quickly located Hux, who was sitting at a big desk aginst the wall, on a laptop - he quickly turned around, brows furrowed, when the door shut. Ben was sitting against the bed, drawing in his sketchbook by lamplight.

“Rey?” he asked when she had opened the door, sounding and looking very surprised.

“Thank god,” she answered, slightly out of breath. “I need your help.”

Ben sprang up, setting aside his art in split second.

“Are you ok?” he asked quickly.

“Yes, I’m fine. It’s Finn - he’s fine but he’s passed out and I can’t get him to my car alone. I really need to take him home.”

She paused, her hand still on the door, feeling Hux’s gaze boring a hole in her.

“Could you help me?” she asked, swallowing, looking at Ben unsurely. “Just to get him to my car.”

The tall, attractive boy nodded instantly, concern in his eyes. He looked at Hux, who looked a bit annoyed and apprehensive, and back at Rey, waiting for instruction.

“Thank you,” she said quietly, after they’d exited the room and Ben had shut the door behind him, filled with bashful gratitude.

“Don’t mention it,” he replied back huskily. “Where’s your friend?”

She explained as they came down the stairs together, and through the short hallway into the large living room. Thankfully, Finn was just as Rey had left him. Passed out, but otherwise fine. 

“Alright…” Ben muttered, bending his lanky form over Finn’s prostrate body on the couch. “Hey, buddy, wake up,”

“I tried that,” Rey said loudly to be heard over the music, bending down too, her face only a few inches away from Ben’s. Finn gave a vague, weak sort of mumble before losing consciousness again. Ben sighed. 

“Could you back up, please,” he asked her evenly. Rey was about to suggest they both lift one of Finn’s arms, but she followed Ben’s instruction, curious about what he was about to do. Moving behind the head of the couch where Finn’s top half was, Ben bent to one knee, and slid his smooth forearms under Finn’s arms. Adjusting his feet so they stood flat on the ground, he began to lift Rey’s friend’s limp body upward, supporting his weight with his torso and legs. Swinging himself to the side of the couch and Finn’s body in his arms like a rag doll, he pulled Finn off to the ground, allowing his knees to hit the ground. Being passed out, however, Finn did not notice this. 

Ben continued to raise Finn’s body up till he had had him upright, weight pressed against his chest. Taking a step forward with his right leg, he swung one of Finn’s arms round his shoulders, holding his wrist for leverage. Squatting again and letting Finn’s body bend at the torso over his shoulder, he wrapped his free arm around the back of Finn’s leg and rose slowly. It was a stunning feat of strength, Rey thought, stunned at the motion, but clearly possible, with the right leverage. Ben rose back to his full height, holding one of Finn’s legs with one hand over his shoulder, and his arm with the other over his other shoulder. He turned his eyes back at Rey expectantly, and she quickly stepped forward toward the exit, not paying attention to the many eyes who had watched the lift with interest and wonder. 

Checking behind her frequently to make sure the tall Ben, made even taller by Finn’s body held firmly over his shoulders and back, was still there, she opened the door and walked backwards onto the front step, walking gingerly just in case Ben needed assistance. He seemed fine however, and just continued to wordlessly carry her passed out friend with concentration in his face, taking deliberate steps. Stressfully, Rey watched this as they walked, worried that one of them might get hurt. The walk to the car felt twice as far, but Ben showed no signs of needing to stop. Or he was doing a good job of hiding it.

“Open a door so I can set him down,” he said out of the darkness, as they left behind the noise of the party and walked into the greater silence of the grassy fields around Hux’s houses’ driveway. Rey nodded quickly, hurrying ahead to make sure she’d gotten the car unlocked. After doing so, she quickly opened one of the back passenger doors, standing beside them awkwardly, brows furrowed as she watched Ben make his slow, determined approach. 

To her immense relief, he made it, bending down again once he’d reached the station wagon so he could lay Finn back onto the seat as gently as he could, rolling him onto his side wisely as many in the party had dangerously not done. 

Rising back up, Ben rubbed the back of his neck, rolling out the strain. Rey was equal parts shocked and elated that this had worked out. Full of embarrassed gratitude, she stood by the side of the car, in her dark dress, trying to find the words.

“Thank you,” she said again, looking up at him with her brows raised in disbelief, frankly, at the events of the evening. “I owe you a huge favor. And so does Finn.”

At this, Finn stirred, mumbling something weakly from within the car. Ben peered in, the corner of his mouth flicked up. He caught Rey’s eyes again, looking bashful.

“Ah, you’re welcome,” he answered after a moment. “It was… yeah. Anytime.”

“Where did you learn to do that?”

Ben paused.

“Lots of things you don’t know about me,” he answered quietly, cryptically. _Damn right,_ thought an enchanted Rey. 

Ben rubbed the back of his neck again.

“Are you ok?” Rey inquired with concern. “I really, really appreciate it, honestly.” 

She looked at him smiling softly at the ground, at his wide shoulders that had just bared so much weight, at the way the moonlight lit his angular face gently. Filled with gratitude and wonder about him, she wanted to kiss him, truly, that is what she wanted to do at that very moment. Just press her hands to his broad chest and gently hold the side of his fair face, and press her lips against his own. 

The thought was chased out by a somewhat distressing sound coming out of Finn. 

“He’s gonna blow,” Ben said quickly, squatting again and swiftly pulling Finn’s torso forward, so that he bent at the waist toward the ground.

“Watch those shoes!”

Rey quickly obliged, stepping back as Finn, well, blew. Chunks. She cringed at the sound, sight and smell.

“Water,” she mumbled, hurrying to the trunk to retrieve a big bottle of Deer Park. Taking the lead in taking care of her friend, she patted Finn on the back as he finished his… business. She handed him the bottle of water, which he eagerly took several gulps of, and poured some over his head, shaking it out over the grass.

“You idiot,” she told him, unable not to smile. “Why weren’t you gulping this while you were drinking?” 

“Because I’m an idiot,” Finn mumbled, wiping his mouth sloppily with his sleeve.

Rey rose, smiling at her friend, glad to have him safe in her care again. _God, one party, you would think he could handle himself._ Perhaps she didn’t have the full story, she reminded herself.

“Seems like he’s gonna be fine,” Ben murmured, shifting his weight as he looked with gentle amusement at Finn, then back at Rey. A few moments passed where they said nothing to each other, the space between them feeling electric.

“I’d better get going,” Ben said a moment later, rubbing his temple. He gave her one last look, again difficult to read, but there was something vulnerable within it. It was Rey’s turn to tell him to wait. Grabbing his hand impulsively as he stepped away, she looked at him with her full lips parted slightly, trying to think of what to say, though she knew what she wanted to do.

“Goodnight, Rey,” he said quietly, blinking. It sounded almost strained, how he said it. Rey looked down at his big hand within her own, trying to memorize the way it felt. 

“Thanks again,” she said quickly, not wanting him to go, now. Just a few hours ago, she’d been the one departing willingly. It was mind boggling. But now she didn’t know what to say to get him to stay.

He gave a solemn nod and slid his hand out of hers, turning around fully and starting to stride back into the dark toward the driveway. Rey watched his tall, retreating back and messy hair, bubbling with emotions she could not make full sense of, wishing she could have his hand again. When he was out of sight, she gave a sigh and turned back to Finn, who was still bent in half, holding the half empty water bottle.

“You done?” she asked, louder now. “No more vomiting?”

“I’m done,” he replied in a low voice. 

“You can sit in the front seat if you promise not to _throw up_ on anything.”

He nodded slowly and she helped him get back up, and slide into the front seat. Giving another small sigh, she moved to the other side of the car, getting in and turning the keys in the ignition. The clock on the dash told her it was about midnight.

She glanced over at Finn, who had his head leaned back against the seat headrest, his eyes closed.

“How did I get here?” he mumbled, rubbing his eyes groggily with the side of his hand.

“Ben helped me get you out here,” Rey answered stiffly, still recovering from the moment with Ben. “You wanna tell me why you were passed out back there?”

Finn gave a loud sigh, licking his lips and squinting at the road as Rey pulled out of the driveway and back onto Grove Street, making a note to avoid the spot in the future. 

“Ugh, Rey, I’m such an idiot…”

“I thought we already established that, but yeah, this hasn’t been your brightest few hours.”

She stared determinedly at the dark road, backtracking the way they came and hoping he might be able to explain, even if he wasn't fully sober. 

“Well, for this… I owe you big, obviously… but I’m also an idiot because I don’t know what I was expecting when I came here, dragged you too, and I didn’t get it, and I drank way too much.”

He said this all quite tiredly, his words slurred, sounding frustrated. Rey nodded slowly, trying to make sense of it.

“Expecting?” she inquired, turning onto a new street and raising her eyebrow.

“With… Poe… God, I don’t want to deal with myself, right now…” 

“What happened?” she pressed, highly concerned with finding out the cause for this self destructive episode. It really had worried her and she didn’t want a rerun.

“I mean, nothing, that’s the point… I tried to…” he began disjointedly. “We talked a bit but… I don’t know why I bother. He’s got too many… people around, always. God.”

Finn pressed his hands over his face. Rey sighed sadly, reaching over to pat him on the shoulder.

“You’re going to be okay, though? I can leave you at home and not worry any more?”

“Yeah... sorry Rey.” he answered, sounding truly ashamed. “We can talk about this later…”

“Yes, when you’re sober,” Rey said gently, feeling sympathy for her friend. It had been a night of mixed up emotions for the both of them. She herself was dealing with a head of balled up thoughts, and the stress of this whole thing was not particularly helpful. She supposed that at the end of it all, she was just glad that they’d both gotten out without any trouble or injuries or anything. Just two confused hearts. 

They completed the journey in silence. Rey pulled into Finn’s driveway, checking with him once again that he was alright, and waiting till she saw that he had gotten to his door and let himself in successfully, if a little bit wobbly, before pulling out and starting down the few deserted roads toward her own place of residence. She focused on the road ahead and getting the car back in the driveway, thankful that there had been no vomiting inside it. That would be a bit uncomfortable to explain to her aunt.

Getting out of the car, she closed the door, shivering slightly as it had dropped a few degrees again. She used her key to get into the house, whose bottom floor was now dark, no more Aunt Maz watching 80s murder mystery shows on TV. Moving quietly through the darkness and silence, she climbed the stairs and entered her room. Suddenly feeling how weary - both emotionally and physically - she felt, she pulled off her clothes with tired limbs and slid into some random t shirt, not having enough energy to even go wash up or anything. Rey climbed her slim frame under her comforter and turned off her lights. 

Lying awake, if exhausted, she attempted to process the night's events one by one. Images and sensations stood out to her - the first view of the busy party, the blue cooler where she’d fished out the soda, the smell of Hux’s cigarettes, the alarm she felt seeing her Finn passed out… the feeling of Ben’s hand in her own, the strength of her desire to show him her gratitude physically. It was all so deeply, truly overwhelming. 

Rey rolled over, and let sleep chase it all temporarily away.


	11. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone deals with the fallout from the party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Another feelings-y chapter, but worry not, action you'll like a lot is coming soon. Check back tomorrow for more! So excited to start sharing the last few chapters of this thing with you :) To everyone who's left comments or kudos, thank you!!

The next morning was a crisp Sunday. Rey was sitting in the passenger seat of Aunt Maz’s station wagon, staring blankly out the window as they passed house after house, tree after tree. 

Her tiny aunt beside her was driving them downtown on an errand run. She’d had to lower and push the seat forward considerably after Rey had used the car, so her small feet could reach the pedals again. A laid back, acoustic rock song was playing out of the radio as they wound round the suburban streets of Resistance toward downtown.

“So did your little shindig go alright?” Aunt Maz inquired, as she turned a corner, turning the big steering wheel with her short arms. Rey thought for a moment about how much to disclose. 

“Oh, you know,” she began finally, vaguely. “Fine, I guess. I didn’t really know many people there, but Finn had fun.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound like too much fun for you…”

Rey chuckled softly, and shrugged. 

“Could have been worse.” she stated, telling the full truth this time. She had been trying to put it all out of her mind as they rode along. Her mind drifted to Finn, who she hoped was alright. That would be one mighty hangover, most likely, for him. He’d scared her greatly with what had happened, and annoyed her by more or less ditching her that night, but she could not make herself be more angry. Mostly, she just felt for her friend, and hoped he would learn from the experience. He’d shown her nothing but support thus far, and had been such a comfort. There was no heavy resentment in her.

Aunt Maz pulled onto Main Street, and slid her large car into a street parking spot in front of the drug store. The town’s main drag was quiet, but not empty - people walked back and forth, headed for brunch or running errands on the cool weekend morning. 

“Why don’t you go and get us some coffee,” Aunt Maz suggest, unbuckling her seatbelt. “I have to run into the post office and check in at the Cantina. Make mine large and black - no milk.”

Rey gave a small smile and accepted a ten dollar bill from her Aunt, nodding and getting out of her seat too. How such a small person could consume so much caffeine, Rey wasn’t sure. She bid her Aunt a farewell and started down the street toward a local coffee shop and book seller - R2’s. Sticking her hands into her coat pockets, she eyed the greying sky above and kept on walking. Some of the shops she passed were closed for the day, a small town commonality that was much less uncommon back home. Like she needed anything else right now to make her feel like a stranger.

Pulling open the door to the coffee shop, Rey inhaled the warm, deep smell of roasting beans and books that made up the pleasant atmosphere inside. It was warm and cozy within the long, rectangular room that made up the shop. On your left, a counter and the coffee making station stretched, complete with a little table with sugar and milk toward the end. Some of the left wall, and all of the right, was covered with shelves of books - paperbacks, big coffee table books, young adult selections, the whole nine yards. In between, a small number of little round tables were occupied by a handful of morning hot drink sippers and shoppers. Removing her sunglasses, she moved toward the counter and got in line. 

Everything was going fine, till she accepted her receipt and headed for the end of the counter where you would pick up your completed drinks. The familiar face of an attractive teenage boy, leaning an elbow against the counter and looking at the floor, caught her eye. Hearing her approach, the boy looked up. Rumpled dark hair, sleepy sort of dark eyes and chiseled features - Poe Dameron. His eyes lit up with recognition when he saw her approach, uneasy with the realization that someone she knew was here.

“Hey, Rey,” he said, smiling at the rhyme. She gave him a small smile back, stopping at the counter too and shoving her hands into her pockets. 

“Hi,” she replied, looking back at his friendly face. Wearing a maroon sweatshirt read _Young Pilot’s Association_ across the chest with his Ray Bans tucked into the collar, he wouldn’t have looked out of place playing a college student on TV. 

“So, did you end up coming to the thing at Amy’s last night? I didn’t see you.”

He continued to lean his elbow casually against the counter and watched her. Rey nodded.

“I was there, yeah, kind of kept it low key, though,”

 _Low key loner, really._ Poe gave a respectful nod. 

“Hey, props. Everyone’s got have a DD,” he responded, referencing a “designated driver” and nodding. Pausing, he glanced behind the counter again, before looking back at her, appearing like he had a question in his face.

“Did Finn have a good time?” he asked hesitantly, scratching the back of his neck. “I talked to him for a bit but… there’s always so many people around and stuff, I hope he didn’t think I hung him out to dry.”

Rey swallowed, for the second time that day wondering how much truth to tell. She decided this time to go once again with the be vague and hope for the best approach. _It wasn’t lying if you didn’t tell the whole truth… was it?_

“Oh, um,” she began awkwardly. “I’m not really sure, he was pretty out of it by the time I got him home but, he met up with some friends and stuff… so I think he managed to have fun.”

Technically, it wasn’t not true. 

“Oh, good,” Poe replied, smiling. “The big thing before the first game always ends up being kind of crazy. I try to talk to as many people as I can but, you know…”

 _Poor, sweet, beautiful Poe,_ Rey thought to herself. So popular that he struggled to spread himself around. What a problem to have, huh? Rey cleared her throat.  
“Honestly, I’d ask him yourself if you’re that curious.”

She added this part cautiously. Poe watched her for a second - she could tell there was some complicated feeling behind his eyes, but not exactly what that might be.  
“Medium latte!” the barista called, breaking their silence and sliding a paper cup with a brown sleeve around the middle of the counter. Poe quickly looked over that picked up the cup. He held it up in a toast style to Rey.

“Thanks for being such a good sport,” he said quietly, and took a sip after he gave her a grin. Rey nodded. The exchange had been strange. She was unsure what to think of him, in full honesty. The things that Finn told her that he said floated to the top of her brain as she watched him.

“Good luck at the game this week,” Rey commented. “Whatever happens.”

His face softened and he gave a small, genuine nod. 

“Thank you. See you there?”

“Oh, yeah. I’ll be somewhere in the stands between Finn and my aunt, most likely."

Poe gave her a grin and bid her a farewell, starting back toward the exit. Turning slightly, she watched his receding back.

 _Men,_ she thought silently in exasperation. It wasn’t her job to interpret to Poe how Finn was feeling - she barely understood it, herself! Rey had been having a lot of issues lately, she noted, with men and their stubbornness in communicating. She quietly resolved to be more upfront with her thoughts in general - like she wanted others to be with her. It would remain to be seen how much she’d stick to it.

 

Just as Rey was waiting in the coffee shop, thinking about her friend, Finn himself was stirring. In his dark bedroom, he was lying face down, haphazardly across the top of his own made bed, still wearing his rumpled clothes from the previous night. His cheek was pressed against his pillow, and the sound of a lawn mower somewhere aside roused him from his sleep. Giving a small groan, he squeezed his eyes shut, hoping that it would just _stop._ Everything, from the muffled sound of it outside, to the small amount of sunlight coming in through his curtains, seemed like too much.

As he slowly became more of aware of his surroundings, the reality of his condition set in, in the way of a headache, dry mouth, and general feeling of nausea and ickiness. His neck was stiff from having slept in the awkward position that he had, and his head pounded something awful. Ugh - vodka. What in the hell had he been thinking that night? He didn’t want to dwell on it. 

Wanting to go back to sleep for another few hours and keep the world shut out, the sick Finn figured he had better get up and deal with his own mess, as literally painful as that was to do, at the moment. Rising slowly, he moved his dry tongue around uncomfortably in his mouth, tasting rather unpleasant bitterness within. As he moved to a sitting position, he gave a small groan and held onto his pounding head. The most he could do at that very second was focus on not throwing up. Still squeezing his eyes shut to close out the light from his his tender head, he pulled his leather jacket off his stiff arms, distinctly aware of the sour scent of alcohol around his mouth. He needed to get himself washed up before any members of his family ran into him in this... state.

Rising slowly to make sure he wasn't going to be falling over, he fumbled with the buttons on his shirt and finally got it off, becoming aware of the dampness of some parts of his skin. Such a mess, such a mess. He was still tactfully avoiding thinking about the events of the previous night - he was nauseated enough. 

Shuffling over to his doorway, he opened it and stepped out to find a note on his door. _Finn - family gone out for breakfast. Didn’t want to wake you. Clean yourself up. Love, Mom._ He squinted at it for a few seconds, becoming aware that his mother probably figured out that he had gotten himself a little messed up the previous night. He’d have to deal with that one later. There was the pressing issue of getting some liquid into his parched self, and cleaning up his immediate person from any remnants of the previous night.

In the kitchen downstairs, Finn swallowed two aspirin with two hearty glasses of water, his dry throat and nausea thankful for the relief. His brain still pounding and his eyes resisting any and all light, he slowly made his way back up the stairs and into the bathroom. Declining to turn on the light, he preferred a shower in the dimness rather than subject his eyes to the pain. Stripping off the remainder of his clothing, he turned on the water and waited a moment, till it heated up to an acceptable level.

Once he was standing underneath it, allowing it to wash over her stiff muscles and keeping his eyes shut, only then did Finn allow himself to think about the previous night. It made him feel about as bad emotionally as he did physically. First off, there had been leaving Rey, which he regretted. She’d slipped off sometime early in the night, this he could recall, but as the drinks flowed and his friends’ loud voices flooded his ears, he’d forgotten to keep an eye out for her. _And still she’d saved his neck,_ he thought guiltily. His had been a dick move if there ever was one. 

Then there had been… the more he remembered, the more he wanted to crawl back into bed and sleep for a week. He’d found himself in the company of Poe some time after arriving, filled with enthusiasm, alcohol, and excitement. The baseball star in question looked his usual attractive, effortless self, in a plaid shirt and jeans, as he at ease sat on top of one of the house’s outside tables, a beer in one hand as he laughed at something someone nearby had said. And boy were there a lot of somebody’s. Girls too, he noticed grimly, flirting heavily with him, thought he seemed to treating everyone the same; in a friendly, sweet way, fit for damn near the most popular guy in school.

He and Finn had exchanged a few words, but everyone seemed to want to talk to Poe. Finn found himself stepping back, feeling like a bit of an intruder on his friend group. His busy, mildly tipsy mind felt disappointment, and annoyance with himself that he had imagined anything but this occurring. So, of course, he did what any rational, well thinking person would do - drank the feelings, the growing realization that his fixation on his old friend was unhealthy and unrealistic, away. What the hell had he been imagining?

Drink, drink, loud music, a haze setting over… this is where things got foggy. He dimly remembered going inside and then things had gone black for a bit. The next thing he remembered, he was sitting on the edge of a car seat, vomiting into the grass near two pairs of boots, one rather large men’s pair, and a smaller, more familiar brown pair belonging to a girl. Rey and.... _Ben Solo?_ The water running down his back and head, Finn pressed his hands to his face, trying to remember if this was true, or a dream. He had been too out of it to catch any of the pair’s soft conversation after this, but now he wondered what on earth had led to that moment.

 _Must talk to Rey,_ his groggy mind decided. _Must talk to Rey._

-  
Across town, Ben Solo was making his way along the side of the empty River Street. It was a road that ran some ways along the Hudson River below, and the primary route he took when walking from Hux’s house on Grove toward his own house, back up on Alderaan Ave. He walked in the narrow stretch of gravel between the shoulder of the road, and the faded metal guardrail. A few feet past that, the earth dropped off sharply, the land around these areas practically a cliff. The woodsy face of the earth sloped down to the river below, that ran calmly down this part of Resistance. 

Ben walked with his hands in his pockets. It was a cool morning morning, a quiet Sunday. He’d slept on his usual couch at Hux’s, and was now heading back home. Walking in silence, he heard only the sounds of birds and the river below, the occasional sway of the branches with the wind. His face, the bottom half of which was smattered with stubble from not having shaved this morning, was pointed downwards as he concentrated on his steps in their black boots. He’d left his headphones at home - normally, he’d be listening to music on this walk home. The silence forced him to be more contemplative than he’d like to be.

That morning, he had Hux had made their way through his friends’ now messy house to the kitchen for coffee. Hux’s sister was somewhere - Hux was not particularly concerned. He had little love for his sister’s rowdy parties, and generally left all the cleanup to her. The kitchen had been little touched, Ben noted, as he leaned back against one of the counters and surveyed the space. His eyes had lingered on the island which still held the cooler, unable to not picture the girl who had been standing there just last night. Rey - her pretty face had had a sort of determined, stormy look on it - her brows were furrowed a little, her full bottom lip pushed out just so. In her black dress and her hair down around her face, she looked like a dream. Something out of a fantasy. The way she had looked at him at that moment had been a little less so. Clearly, his frosty treatment from before had not gone unnoticed. 

Pulling his hand out of hers later that night had close to physically hurt him. He had peered into her eyes in the darkness, knowing there was something behind them, something besides the feisty sort of guarded energy that she had given off earlier. But it had to be done, he told himself. It had to be done. _It had to be done._

_If he repeated it enough, would it get easier to accept?_

Hux passed him a mug of hot coffee and backed up again. The red haired boy watched him with his intense sort of eyes again. Ben could tell there was something on his mind.

“What is it?” he asked, pushing a few bits of black hair out of his face. He was still unused to how short it felt in the back. _Why did he do this, again?_ Because he was an irrational idiot when he wanted to be, that’s why.

“What’s what?” Hux replied coolly, stepping back and going to stir sugar into his coffee.

“You sure you don’t have anything to grill me on?”

His friend gave a low chuckle. 

“Just wondering what the deal with that girl was.”

Ben’s brows furrowed. Hux was his friend, but he was definitely an asshole when he wanted to be.

“Her name is Rey,” he began defensively, then paused. He hadn’t been giving her as much respect as she deserved, either, recently, had he? “And uh, no deal.”

“You practically jumped out of your skin when she came up…”

“I thought something might be wrong,” Ben replied, looking straight ahead and taking a tiny sip of coffee, tasting its bracing bitterness of the tip of his tongue. “And there was.”

“Ah.” Hux replied, giving a self satisfied little smile. Ben looked away. He didn’t really feel like letting Hux continue to get at him. Hux was perceptive, if not always the most polite about it - he could tell that the events of last night had lingered on Ben’s mind. Soon enough, Ben had made some excuse to leave, draining his coffee and bidding his friend a goodbye, making his way through the messy living room and out the door, wanting to be alone with himself for now. He started down the long driveway, headed for River street, with his bag of overnight things slung over his slightly hunched in shoulders.

So here he was, schlepping his way down the quiet road along the river. He wondered absently what had become of Rey’s passed out friend - that guy Finn. Chuckling darkly to himself, he thought about how learning that fireman’s carry a few years back did end up coming in handy, as it seemed. Maybe one day he’d use it to carry more than just drunk teenagers out of parties. 

Now, though, as he walked, Ben realized he had no idea where he was with Rey. And his plan to stay away from her and chase images and thoughts of her out of his brain had gone out the door pretty fast. She seemed to have a way of staying in his head.

As he started up the incline at the end of which River Street would turn onto Alderaan, he felt himself breathing harder, the sides of his jacket slapping against his chest. Pausing slightly on the crest of the hill, the tall boy rested his weight on one foot, grasping for the mild stitch in his side. Ben stared down the cliff as he paused to catch his breath. He fantasized briefly about climbing down to the bottom, to the smooth rocks on the side of the river, wading his lanky frame into the smooth, cold waters and letting himself float down to wherever the river took him. 

_Wanting to run (float) away from your problems - that was always healthy, right?_

He pushed a hand through his newly shorn dark locks and resumed down the street toward home.


	12. Collision Course

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone returns to school, pre-game excitement grows, and Rey and Ben get something very, very unexpected.

Driving into school on Monday morning was the first time Finn and Rey had seen one another since Saturday night - or would that be Sunday, the wee hours? Once he’d felt a little better, on Sunday afternoon, Finn gave Rey an apologetic phone call. They talked for a long time. Finn expressed his regrets and apologies for what had occurred, and his surprise at the confirmation that no, it was not a dream, Ben Solo really was the one to carry him to the car. 

“Still can’t believe Solo carried _all of this, all that way,_ by himself,” Finn mused as they drove on that Monday morning, gesturing comically up and down to his body. Rey chuckled, remembering the sight, but it melted to the general moody confusion she felt toward Ben at the moment.

“There’s a lot we don’t know about him, that’s what he said,” she replied, tucking some hair behind her ear. “When I asked him where he learned that.”

“There sure as hell is.”

“That’s exactly what I thought!” Rey agreed, nodding enthusiastically, before falling silent. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Finn glancing, interested and concerned, at the same time, at her.

“I’m sensing more to this situation than you’re telling me….” he said after a moment, gently, as they turned down to another treelined street. Rey licked her lips, thinking of what to say.

“Can we just both make a resolution,” she answered finally, firmly. “To both be more forthright with how we feel? To other people, about them.” 

Finn blinked.

“Well… what makes you say that?”

Rey gave a small sigh, her hands absently knitting in her lap. She disclosed to Finn how she felt in regards to Ben, and the confusing, mixed signals she seemed to be getting from him - and giving to him. She also reminded Finn that his own hesitation is what caused him to feel so badly on Saturday, plus the episode from the coffee shop.

“You told him to what?” Finn said, breaking from the respectful silence he’d given to her when he had been listening to her explanations. Rey resisted the urge to roll her eyes. 

“I’m not your interpreter,” she said flippantly. “It seems like you both want to talk to each other more and just… aren’t.”

Finn sat still, staring at the road ahead, for a few moments, his brows furrowed as he stared ahead. Then, his face softened, and he looked at Rey guiltily.

“You’re right,” he conceded, more softly. “And sorry, you were talking about yourself, I didn’t mean to turn it about me. Hey, you know what I always say - if he’s not treating you like you deserve, kick him to the curb.”

Rey rubbed the side of her arm in a troubled sort of way.

“Easier said than done,” she replied darkly. “Plus… I don’t know. I’m not satisfied with just leaving it at that. There seems to be… a lot going on under there.”

Finn paused and thought.

“I’m a bit hypocritical to be giving this advice, aren’t I?”

“Um… do I have to answer that?”

Finn chuckled, nodding slowly.

“I get it. We both have screwy ways of dealing with people we like, I accept that.”

“I guess I do too. So, what do you say?”

She looked at him expectantly. 

“Are we going to resolve to be more forthright, or not?” she asked seriously. “I’m not kidding.”

“If you’re implying that I should march on down to baseball practice and yell ‘POE DAMERON, YOU MAKE ME AROUSED’, to everyone…”

Rey laughed.

“Of course not! I just mean, less beating around the bush. We could both benefit from holding back less, and being more honest. With each other and other people.”

Finn nodded. He pulled into a spot in the student lot and held out his hand to Rey.

“You’ve got yourself one big resolution.”

The two friends smiled genuinely at one another, and shook hands. They had quite different hands - his were dark and much thicker than Rey’s slim, tapered fingers and distinct knuckles. But there was true intention behind both of their handshakes. How it would end up, only time would tell.

 

The game was to be held on Tuesday night. There was a palatable buzz building in the school. You could hear it in people’s conversations as you passed them in the hall, the reverent way people looked at the baseball team members in class, everyone hoping for the one outcome - a win. Rey had kept an eye out for Poe Dameron, who she did not have a chance to speak to since Saturday, but kept her distance, and just observed. She caught him sometimes at the lunch table, staring into the distance with a slight furrow in his brow, for a good few minutes till one of the other members of his table brought him back into the conversation. There was definitely some distraction in his handsome face. Clearly, the game was on his mind, like everyone else's.

It was what was on Rey’s mind during last period on Tuesday. She’d been assigned to get a bottle of red paint for a project for shop class from the art room, across the hall and down its own little passage. It was somewhere at RHS that Rey had never been. So, absently thinking about what that night would hold, she walked down the drafty basement hallway, pulling her hair out of its elastic and shaking it out with her fingers. She was told that the paint would be in the cabinets beneath the windows, so she kept that in the back of her mind as she walked into the little art passage. The ceiling in that small hallway, that had a few doors leading off of it with labels like “ART STORAGE” and “MATTING AND FRAMING” on them, was covered in colorful student murals. 

Cautiously and quietly, she walked through the art room door, propped open on its door stop, and found it empty of life. Standing by the door, she observed the long, unfamiliar room. It was shaped like a big rectangle, both walls flanked by a number of cabinets and shelving, and some counters with sinks. The walls above, the ones not covered by storage or windows, were covered in big, colorful art posters and student work. The far right corner held a small ceramics area, complete with two wheels and a kiln, and the front of the room contained the teacher’s messy desk, along with more storage below a big white board. Along the room’s main space, big, empty rectangular tables sat vacant, waiting for students to fill their stools and their work to cover their tops. Almost all were completely empty, except one, which held someone’s black bag and sketchbook, open next to a small box of pencils. It sat on the right side of the room, which was dimmer than the tables beneath the window. It was semi dark in the room right now, whoever was there had not bothered to turn the lights on, and natural light was all that lit the room, then.

Rey made her way to where she had been instructed to go, peering at the long sets of cabinets and experimentally opening one, finding it to be full of cups of brushes and sponges. The next one had small tubes of watercolor paints on its top shelf, the bottom containing a number of tubs of different kinds of glues. She hit jeopardy on the next set of cabinets, which held neat rows of acrylic paints in big plastic bottles. Peering in, she squatted down and retrieved the first in the row of red acrylics. Rey balanced the weight of it in her hand, straightening back up and closing the cabinet door. 

As she rose, her eyes scanned the wall adjacent to her, on which hung a bunch of different posters - one detailing guides to values and the color wheel, another explaining the differences between oil, acrylic, tempra and watercolor paint. She also looked interestedly at the different glossy prints of famous works, from graphic, colorful postmodern pieces by Warhol and Basquiat, to more pastel toned Impressionist masterworks. Drifting to the other end of the room, she looked up at the student works mounted on the wall, some in black mats and others, on canvas, hung with wires with hooks on the back. There were standard charcoal and pencil portraits of people and places, plus some artsy landscapes done with watercolor, and some more abstract works in paint. She wondered absently if any of Ben’s work was on here. 

Her eye caught sight of the small sketchbook on the table, now next to her. The person working in it had seemingly been in the process of drawing a hand holding a cigarette on one page, before packing up their pencils, which were in a closed clear plastic carrying box. It was an impressive rendering, the hand looking spindly and angular - realistic but with character, and well shaded. Impulsively and curiously, her hand crept over and flipped back a page. On this one, more unique works - a rough, gestural sketch of a mountainous landscape from outside a window, and on the facing page, an inked drawing of knocked over bottles, next to an ambiguous, abstract sort of sketch of a male face that looked away from the viewer. The lines flowed away, leaving the face a floating phantom, but the whole piece had a harmonious sort of cohesion to it.

However, when she flipped another page back, she was met with an intense surprise. Instead of more expressive sketches, she found herself looking down onto a realistic portrait of a girl smiling at the viewer, a girl who looked a great deal like herself - specifically, the photo of herself that Finn had taken for the school paper. She stared down at the drawing with intense surprise, and marvelled at how much realism it could capture in relatively few lines. She was so engrossed in staring at the page, that she did not hear someone enter the room, back through the doorway. 

“What are you doing here?” a male voice said from across the room. Caught completely unaware, Rey dropped her bottle of paint in surprise. Quickly bending down to retrieve it before it rolled away, she rose and whirled around to face the speaker. And speak of the devil.

“Um, getting this for shop,” she stammered. Unable to stop herself, she asked with intense curiosity: “Is that me?”

Ben stared at her, still standing a few tables down in a blue long sleeve shirt rolled up over his smoothly muscled forearms, and his usual skinny jeans-boots combo. His eyes flicked from her, to the small sketchbook, a degree of alarm entering them when he noticed what she’d seen. Rey’s mind raced, connecting the dots. 

“That’s private,” he managed finally, it sounding somewhat tortured. He strode over and, barely glancing over at her, shot out his hand to pick it up, holding it with both hands and looking down at the cover. Rey felt guilt stab at her, realizing she’d committed a major invasion of privacy, but it was unable to quell the intense surprise and curiosity at the discovery.

“Sorry,” she said quickly, stepping back, holding the paint bottle at her side. She stared at him in deep wonder, rationalizing that yes, it definitely must have been her. Now, what on earth was he doing, sketching her face. She looked at his long fingered, fair hands in which he held the sketchbook. She imagined them grasping a pencil, and laying down soft strokes to render her own appearance in his private sketchbook. A million questions and confusions ran through her head.

Finally, he met her gaze again. He looked very embarrassed.

“Shouldn’t you be going back to shop…” he said softly, still holding his sketchbook with both hands.

“I’m really sorry,” Rey repeated. “I didn’t mean to- I didn’t know it was yours.”

“Well, now you do.”

“You drew me… when?”

She continued to look at him with wonder in her greenish eyes. Many emotions and questions floated around in her brain, chasing each other around and keeping her from easily deciphering how she felt at this moment. A good deal embarrassed, but also fascinated, curious beyond belief about his feelings for her, mingled with her own complicated emotions about him.

“Why does it matter?” he mumbled back, placing the sketchbook on the table, still looking away.

Remembering her resolution to be more forthright, Rey put the paint bottle on the table and crossed her arms over her chest, mustering up all her courage.

“I have other questions,” she began, looking intently at his face as if willing him to look at her. “Why are you acting so…. cold to me?”

Ben looked at her then, very suddenly, a sort of intensity burning behind his dark eyes that she was not ready for. Rey shrunk back a tiny bit, but reminded herself to stand her ground. This was her last time trying to work it out with him, she told herself, forcing herself to keep looking at him. At eye level was his chest and neck, his pale, angular collarbones that peeked out of his shirt, a long neck that had some smattering of facial hair where he’d missed a spot or two shaving around the spots where it curved toward his angular jaw. Rey forced herself to make eye contact again.

“Why do you care?” he asked finally, looking away. It sounded pained. Rey blinked.

“I just…” she faltered. He crossed his arms too, so they stood face to face now, each behind their own little physical barrier. Ben looked from his shoes to the sketchbook on the table, brows slightly furrowed. 

“I just feel like I deserve some sort of explanation,” she said quickly. “Because I don’t get how-”

“What is it with you and trying to figure me out?” he interrupted, taking a sort of unconscious step forward, his tone sounding genuinely demanding and confused. Rey’s brows furrowed.

“Because I know there’s more to you than you let on!” she replied, slightly louder. And she did - it was not hard to tell that he seemed to be hiding large parts of his personality from her, or blocking himself from speaking too long to her. She knew this wasn’t like what he really was like inside - she’d seen it. And it hurt to be stonewalled in this way after. It really did.

They stared at one another for a few moments, passionate intensity in both of their eyes as they tried to get the other one to back down, or at least, explain themselves more fully. Ben looked down at Rey, and she looked up at him. It would be unclear to them both later which one initiated the next, wildly unexpected moment, but it happened very fast - they just went to staring at each other confrontationally, to the next motion, in a moment.

Ben’s hand unwound from his crossed arms landed on Rey’s face and raised it up so it could reach his own when he bent it down. Many sensations hit them both at the same time as their lips latched onto the other one’s. Rey’s hands went from crossed tightly before her, to pressed against Ben’s broad chest, slightly grabbing onto the soft fabric of his shirt to pull him closer. Ben’s hand moved from her face to her waist, pressing at the small of her back to make the space between them disappear, the other one clamping round her curvy hip. They kissed with a repressed sort of passion - Rey felt the pleasant pressure of his hands on her body, the warmth of his chest under her own hands, the hungry sort of way he held her bottom lip between his own - all at once. It was almost overwhelming, for the few moments the fire burned between them, and the arousal that usually came with a passionate kiss stirred within her.

And just as quickly as it had started, it ended. The two of them, still pressed together and distinctly aware of how the other one’s hands felt on their body, looked at each other for a few moments in which time felt like it stood still, saying nothing, just taking in their own shock at the development. With the same speed that he had scooped up Rey’s slim figure against his own, Ben dropped his lanky arms and stepped away, his eyes sliding to the ground. Rey watched, still processing the event that just overtook them, as he scooped up his sketchbook, pencil case, and backpack up in one motion.

“I gotta go,” he mumbled, and swung his bag round his shoulder, not making eye contact, before practically running out of the room. 

Rey was left, standing on the linoleum floor of the dim room, her eyes still wide with disbelief. Her numb feeling hand reached up and she touched her fingers to her lips, which still felt moist from being locked with Ben’s. She looked at the solitary bottle of red paint, which was now the only thing on the table, and blinked.

If she had been confused about him before, she couldn’t even begin to explain how she felt now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DUN DUN DUN! Oh, Ben. 
> 
> Thank you for ALL the love - almost 350 kudos! Over a 100 comments! You guys make my day. We're almost at the end now - check back TOMORROW to see how this whole craziness continues. Enjoying so much sharing this with you all, much love x


	13. You're The Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day of the big game finally arrives. Finn and Poe have a moment, and Rey struggles with her own feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final stretch here - this is either the second or third to last chapter, depending on what I decide. I really hope you enjoy some tender Finn/Poe before we get back to that other couple that's making us all so frustrated... check back tomorrow for more! 
> 
> 400 kudos - WOW! Thank you all so much!

Finn Trooper was standing in the corner of the Rebel’s clean, busy locker room. Brightly and harshly lit with strips of fluorescent lights, the long, rectangular room had a tile floor, and lockers or shelf storage lining its walls. Dividing the room every few feet were freestanding pods of lockers, with a long linoleum bench between each two. These benches currently held the anxious, but excited members of RHS’s varsity baseball squad. He’d been allowed in after they’d finished putting on their uniforms _(unfortunately)_ , but currently, they were engaged in tying up cleats, putting on hats, and talking amongst one another. 

There was an electric sort of energy in the room, like sizzle in the air before a thunderstorm. There was definitely a quiet anticipation in everyone. The players talked and laughed and joked about, but you could see them glance over to the door every once in a while, anxiously checking if it was time to go yet. In this business, and in the players’ own inward attention, Finn felt invisible, but that’s what he wanted. Getting the best candids requires you to slink around, quietly, keeping your eye out for the little moments. In this case, the ways the players grasped their hands nervously in their laps, how they looked, grinning at one another, and the overall volume of their presence in the room. Finn held his camera in front of his chest like a little shield. There would be some great shots for the school, out of these, but also for his own portfolio, a steadily building folder on his laptop at home. 

He wouldn’t admit it but he was looking out for Poe - who he had not spoken to since Saturday, but who had spoken to Rey about him. Finn had thought about this for a long time. Sweet, sweet Rey. They both seemed to be having issues deciphering other people. Finn was at least thankful that they could be honest with one another. Her and Poe’s moment had stuck in his mind, made him decipher it every which way, before ultimately deciding there was no way of knowing what Poe really thought, unless he asked him himself - like Rey said. 

Still curious, he slid his way down the row of lockers, snapping a photo here and there where there was one to take, his eyes scanning the athletic male bodies in search of someone specific. He finally found what he was looking for at the end of the noisy room, behind the last freestanding locker row, on the bench between it and the wall. The light strip above was burned out, making this end of the room dimmer than the rest. 

Poe was there, sitting on the bench. He was sitting leaned forward, with his forearms rested on his knees, and holding his hat in his hands. Dressed in his full Rebels uniform, the attractive, dark haired boy was looking at the ground, brows slightly furrowed. Just looking, all by himself, cut off from the rest of the activity in the room. Quietly, before Poe noticed him, Finn bent his knees slightly, and held his camera up to his face. In his viewfinder, Poe appeared in profile. In this dimness, and his contemplative pose, this made for a very interesting shot. Finn clicked the shoot button, wondering what might be going through his head.

After the camera had gone off, Poe’s head turned, looking for the source of the sound.

“Don’t move-” Finn quipped, still bent down with his camera in front of his face. Poe, looking surprised, turned his head back into the position it held previously, though his expression had changed. Finn snapped another few close ups - Poe’s hands holding his hat before him, his cleats against the tile floor - before removing his camera and standing back up.

Poe looked up at him, straightening out again, and gave a small, curious smile.

“School paper?” he inquired. 

“Maybe,” Finn said, looking down at the shots he just took on his digital camera’s little screen. “I think I’m gonna call this series ‘Before The Big Game’....”

Poe gave another genuine smile.

“Snappy.”

“Right?”

Finn caught himself smiling back at his old friend, before his usual bashfulness settled in. He fiddled with the dials on the camera, looking down.

“So, what’s the team captain doing all the way back here?” he asked conversationally, thought inside he was really curious. 

“Ah, you caught me…” Poe replied, chuckling. He looked back down and ran a hand through his thick hair, absently rolling his hat around in his other hand. “Pregame jitters, that’s all. The usual.”

Finn’s face softened. He felt for his friend, despite all the differences between them. In that moment, Poe felt very human. Finn watched the way Poe stared off at the floor in front of him, breathing evenly, chewing slightly on his bottom lip. His serious, reserved nervousness was palatable. Finn slung his camera back around his neck and took a step forward. He leaned a shoulder on the back wall of lockers, in front of and a few feet away from Poe. 

“It’ll be fine,” he consoled. “I’ve seen you guys play.”

Poe chuckled at the ground, leaning forward again. He caught Finn’s eye and shook his head to himself, in amused disbelief.

“I know… don’t know why I get so nervous, but…” he mused.

“It’s natural.” 

Finn watched Poe, smiling. Despite his own embarrassment from Saturday night that had stung him a great deal, both physically and in his head, Finn still could not help but feel admiration toward Poe. Poe, leader of the team, Poe, the pilot, who was nice to everyone, who made his town proud, who had only ever done one thing to hurt Finn - and even that thing was in dispute as to who was the one doing the hurting. He felt a rush of affection for his friend that transcended his childlike little crush on him. 

Taking a step forward, he sat himself down on the bench beside Poe, hoping his presence was a comfort, not a distraction to the soon-to-be-player. 

“Whatever happens,” he began quietly, feeling that he was sharing a private moment with Poe despite the fact that the room was very full, thanks to the lockers cutting them off. “You’re still you. And I mean, in this game but also… in the bigger picture. You’re an admirable guy, Poe.”

Poe looked up at him, a wistful sort of expression on that melted into a smile. 

“And that all sounds cliche as all hell,” Finn added quickly, fiddling with his camera in his hands. “But I’m just saying. You know. You’re the man, whether you win or not.”

Poe’s smile was gentle and genuine. There was genuine emotion in his eyes, he seemed grateful.

“Thanks,” he said quietly, still watching his friend, his hands loosely knitted before him. “I missed you, Finn.”

Finn blinked. The comment had come out of nowhere. It surprised him a great deal, but he felt a warmth in his chest and in the back of his neck, a embarrassed, affectionate sort of heat beneath his skin that spread through to his fingertips. Feeling a rush of emotion toward his friend, he reached out an arm and put it around Poe’s broad shoulders. He was not sure if this actually happened, or if he projected it onto the situation, but he was fairly sure he felt Poe tilt his head slightly into his shoulder. Finn certainly felt the tickle of the ends of his hair on his cheek, the masculine smell of Poe’s deodorant or body spray in his nose. 

“I missed you too,” he said softly to him. They sat like this for a moment, just taking in each other’s presence. The warmth within Finn made a small smile stick on his features, as he soaked in the moment - the pleasing sort of way his arm fit around Poe’s shoulders, the gentle pressure of his body leaning against Finn’s. He wondered how long the moment would have lasted if the bark of the team coach from the other end of the room didn’t interrupt.

“Boys - let’s move!” the booming, masculine voice called from the doorway somewhere behind them. The players let out hoots and hollers, the adrenaline, excitement and nervousness bubbling together to a fever pitch. Finn quickly withdrew his arm, and the two boys stood. 

“Huddle time,” Poe said. He pressed his hat onto his head and gave Finn one of his usual dazzling, roguish grins. Finn grinned back, the top of his ears feeling warm, and clapped his friend on the shoulder. 

“Get going, then,” he replied. “I’ll be somewhere up there in the stands.”

Poe looked at him for another moment from under his navy blue Rebels hat. He seemed much more prepared and confident than he had been when Finn was taking photos of him earlier. Finn, bubbling with kiddish affection and happiness, chalked that up to a job well done.

Then he did something he was surprised he himself had had the gall to do. Leaning forward, he placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder and brushed his lips against Poe’s cheek. It was a brief motion, but he was able to note on the smoothness of his friend’s cheek as he gently pressed his lips against it. He liked it very much.

When he leaned back, half afraid of Poe’s reaction, he found him looking a little surprised, blank in the face. He did not, however, jerk back or give him a weird look. A moment later, his pretty lips formed a small smile, and he looked down for a moment. Was that…. a little embarrassment in his face? Finn was not sure, but the warmth within him was still buoying him and his confidence up. 

“Thanks,” Poe said said finally, softly, looking Finn back in the eye again. Breaking into a handsome grin and giving his old friend final nod, he jogged toward the entrance of the room, out which the Rebels players were making their way out of, cheering with excitement. Several hands clapped Poe happily on the back as he joined the throng leaving the room, and he departed with his teammates, arms around their shoulders and grinning. 

Finn stepped back. Staring at now silent, empty room in front of him with his hands grasping at his camera, a smile continued to stay on his face as he thought about what had just occurred. True, he had not kissed his attractive friend _on the lips_ or expressed his emotions in an otherwise highly physical manner as he had so often imagined, but he marvelled at the progress that they’d made over what was a whirlwind last few weeks. Still being able to remember the feeling of his arm around Poe’s shoulders, and his cheek beneath his lips, he pictured his friend with his charming smile, the chiseled angles in his face, and the little things that made him so much himself. 

The moment that had just occurred was small, but was more than he could have asked for. Still standing alone in the locker room, he heard the roar from down the hallway of the players as they presumably exited their motivational huddle. A grin came across his features. Turning around, he held his camera up to his eyes, bent slightly, and made a few shots of the bench on which he had his tender moment with Poe. 

It was a short moment. But it was a start - and infinitely better than where they’d been before Rey showed up. That was the moment things had changed, and changed a lot, he thought as he smiled. Slinging his camera’s comfortable weight around his neck, Finn turned round, and walked out. 

 

In the stand above the RHS’s baseball field, Rey sat toward the top rows with her Aunt on one side, and an empty seat saved for Finn on her other side. Her eyes swept the scene before her. The dirt baseball diamond, with its neat lines and clean bases along with the infield, took up about a third of the field, or so. The rest, in neat trimmed grass, made up the outfield, bordered by a short, padded top fence. Behind home plate and the tall, wire backstop that backed up the diamond sat the small building that made up the announcer's box and the ticket office, on the first floor. A big _“REBELS BASEBALL FOREVER”_ sign hung on the outside of the building, on the field side. On either side of it, long sets of bleachers spread along the sides of the building, that went all the way to the edge of the outfield, broken up only by the coaches’ boxes behind first and third bases, one for home, and the other for the away team. The bleachers were currently being filled up with people coming in for the game - almost every spot was taken, at this point, and there were people setting up blankets to watch from behind the outfield. In the air was a general feeling of excitement, between the fans - students, parents, teachers, other Resistance townspeople. In this small town, this was the hottest ticket, as it seemed.

Not that much else ever went on here, especially on a Tuesday night, Rey thought with a degree of gloominess. She watched the busy activity around her, lit with the big floodlights above that made it as bright as day, despite the fact that the sun had set. People were walking up and down the stands, finding seats, greeting others, carrying   
_“GO REBELS” _posters and bags of popcorn for sale by some club or another on a table by the entrance for a fundraiser. The field was so far empty, but the game was going to start very soon at this point, and people were anxiously looking at the field, in anticipation.__

__But Rey was not feeling particularly in the mood. It was purely because her distraction - her preoccupation, that kiss. THE kiss, that bizarre occurrence in the RHS art room up at the main building a few hours ago that she literally couldn’t stop thinking about. As she sat there, nervously twiddling a piece of her hair, that she wore down over that same black dress she’d worn to the party the other day (because of how great Finn kept telling her she looked in it) and her green jacket, she absently stroked a finger against her lip. When she closed her eyes she could still feel the heat of _his_ lips on it, and tingling in her back and hip where his hands had been. Not only had it been confusing, befuddling and generally unbelievable, it had also lit a passion in her that she hadn’t been aware was there. Something about the intensity of the moment, the brevity and straight up brazenness of their act. She would not admit to herself how much she had enjoyed it._ _

__She was so wrapped up in thinking about it that she did not notice Finn jogging up the side of the bleachers till he slid into the seat beside her._ _

__“Hey!” he said enthusiastically, to Rey and her Aunt. Little Aunt Maz, her feet just touching the bottom of the bleacher below as they sat, waved a little hand at Finn, the other one holding a bag of popcorn which she had been eating. Rey smiled at her friend, noting the sort of giddiness in his expression._ _

__“You look happy,” she observed, as he sat himself down and removed the camera from around his neck, putting it in his lap._ _

__“I’ll tell you later,” he said brightly, grinning at her and looking out at the activity. “This is exciting! Your first Rebels game. You’re in for a treat.”_ _

__Rey looked out at the field, trying to get in on some of the excitement clearly felt by all around her._ _

__“Yeah,” she said, putting on a smile as she looked out into the field too. Her main goal right now was just to not think about it. This was made considerably more difficult by the next thing that occurred._ _

___"GOOD EVENING, ALL!”_ a voice suddenly erupted loudly from the mounted speakers on the lights stand. Cheers erupted from the crowd as everyone perked up to listen._ _

___“It is a pleasure to welcome you to the first Rebels baseball game of the season!”_ _ _

__More cheering._ _

___“Before we commence with the national anthem, and of course, the game, I would like to make sure we extend an extra enthusiastic welcome to a special guest. Tonight, we have Mayor Solo and her family joining us up here in the box!”_ _ _

__The crowd gave another happy cheer. It was all Rey could do to not rub her temples with her hands. If she had to get reminded _one more time.__ _

___“Good evening, Resistance… who’s ready for some baseball?”_ the sudden and unexpected, but to all familiar, voice of Han Solo came over the PA. The crowd gave a louder cheer and people laughed, clearly pleasantly surprised. As the mic was handed back over to the main announcer and they gave some shout outs to people, Aunt Maz leaned over to Rey._ _

__“Oh, before I forget,” she said into her niece's ear. “We’re going to the Solos’ after the game, they’re having a little get together for friends.”_ _

__Rey was highly tempted to press her hands to her face and give a mangled scream, but she stayed upright, and gave a small nod to indicate she had heard. So, that little thing about trying not to think about it - the world seemed to be trying very hard to make sure that did not work well for her._ _


	14. Same Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final confrontations!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is - THE LAST CHAPTER. Ahhh, can't believe I've actually finished!! Thank you all SO, SO very much for all the encouragement and feedback, that's the only reason I was able to write and update so consistently. I really really hope you like this chapter and this fic as a whole, it was SO MUCH fun to come up with and write and share with you all. Please enjoy, and leave feedback if you haven't and maybe I'll see you elsewhere around the Archive.
> 
> Till then, may the force be with you! x

The Rebels game ended around 8 o'clock, and as people streamed out of the field exit path toward the various parking lots, chattering excitedly, Rey followed her tiny aunt through the crowd with growing apprehension in the pit of her stomach. It was doubtless that Ben would be at this thing - after all, it was HIS house. She was not sure what she’d do if she saw him. Run? Hide? Throw her arms around his neck and kiss him again? All three of those sounded agreeable in their own way. 

They waited for a while in the car, as the exit from the parking lot quickly turned into a bottleneck. Aunt Maz chattered happily about the game.

“That boy Poe - now _there’s_ a player,” she said, wagging her fingers as they waited. “I’ve been coming to these games for years, and there haven’t been so many like him. Is he a nice boy?”

Rey chuckled, crossing her arms loosely before her, thinking of Finn. She’d watched Poe play, a big grin on his attractive face as he scored a point after making a home run. He had simply been on fire. She had looked over at Finn, smiling too, his face shining with happiness. Something had happened between the two of them but she couldn’t get out exactly what, from him. Either way, she was happy for him. And she was happy to be spending quality time with the person who had quickly and undoubtedly become her best friend

“Yes, he’s nice.” she answered finally. Aunt Maz smiled to herself and nodded slowly.

“And how handsome! Take my word for it - we’re going far this season!”

As they pulled out of the parking lot, Rey watched the dark trees, interspersed with the streetlights and the little suburban homes by their school. Aunt Maz informed Rey that they needed to stop at home so she could pick up the food she made for this particular occasion. Rey debated with herself on their way home about whether to ask if she could just stay home, pretend she wasn’t feeling well, but her aunt seemed so enthusiastic about going and having her niece there with her old friends, that Rey didn’t want to crush it by chickening out, just because of some boy. 

_Some boy._ Rey sighed to herself, as they pulled into their driveway and Aunt May scuttled out to get her food from inside the dark house. Rey pictured the immense, elegant Solo house in her head. She imagined it full of people, with Han and Leia as the dutiful hosts. It was not hard to imagine. However, her little mental curiosity inevitably conjured up images - tastes and feelings too, of a certain someone, with a low voice and a broad chest and dark hair and an attractive face she didn’t want to picture. 

They drove up out again and started back toward the river, in the nicer part of town where Alderaan Avenue was. Rey formulated her little plan in her head. She’d come in with her aunt, get the general pleasantries over with, say hi to Mr. and Mrs. Solo, and then slink off to… somewhere. She pictured what she knew of the house and where a convenient place to hide might be - perhaps somewhere in the backyard, where she’d been knocked down by Chewie on that one day. 

The street around their big, lit up house had a handful more than usual cars parked in it. Aunt Maz pulled her big station wagon up a few houses down, and they started down the sidewalk on foot.

“This is one of the nicer parts of town,” her Aunt informed her. “Look at these things! I wouldn’t have any idea of what to do with all the space…”

“I guess they do….” Rey replied, looking up at the large suburban mansion style homes they passed on the quiet, dark street. 

“The Solo house is really the most beautiful. Of course, when I met Han for the first time, he was living out of a one bedroom flat on top of a sushi restaurant in town!”

Aunt Maz smiled to herself, seemingly wrapped up in memories as they started up the Solo’s well trimmed lawn up to their portico entrance. Rey took deep breath, and reminded herself to make sure she did not look as confused and apprehensive as she felt. 

 

His sketchbook and small plastic pencil case tucked under his arm, Ben waited at the darkness before the end of the staircase, listening to the cheerful sounds of conversation floating up from the cocktail party in the living room. Typical of his parents, they had taken the opportunity of one social gathering - the game - and made it into two social gatherings. All without consulting him, of course.

Ben stood in silence, free hand on the railing, as his deep eyes blinked in the dimness. He was escaping, as usual. In his room, he had tried to relax, but the sound of the party was still seeping through, and he felt boxed in and claustrophobic. His mind was still wrapped up in its own confusion over earlier events, and he needed to get out. 

Typical of him to run away. Typical of him to close himself away. He half hated himself for it, unable to stop picturing Rey’s wide green eyes, inches from his own, after he’d pulled his lips off hers. Ben had just stood there, looking down on her, with his lips still tingling and his arms still keenly aware of the warmth of her form in them. And he’d done the most Ben Solo thing he could have done - _run away._

His jaw set as he continued to stand on the step in his boots. When he’d gotten home earlier that day, he had opened his sketchbook to the page where he had first drawn Rey, on that fateful night. He was tempted right then to simply rip the page out, crumple it up into a ball, and get rid of it. So he didn’t have to face what he’d done. But he couldn’t make himself commit the act. He couldn’t stop looking down at the beautiful face and thinking about kissing her. He did not want to want her, but just like with the drawing, he could not make himself stop. Especially since she seemed specifically determined to make sure he could not. 

Deeming it safe, he started back down the stairs as quietly as he could, and instead of walking forward toward the bright, busy party in the living room and kitchen, he swung a left through the dark dining room, and another left to the mud room. His eyes scanned the tiny room, which contained the laundry machines and a selection of shoes and raincoats, quickly locating what he was searching for - the big camping lantern sitting next to a pair of rainboots. Bending his tall frame to swing a long fingered hand through its handle, he rose and slid its weight down to hang in the crook of his elbow. 

He was face to face with the door that led from the mud room to outside. In the glass, he saw his own dark reflection - smoothed back black hair showing a long forehead, a prominent nose and pointed chin over his long sleeved shirt and jacket. The same he’d been wearing in the art room earlier. He scowled at his reflection. Ben had never thought of himself as attractive - his features were always too long, his form too gangly and pale. The only thing he felt he ever really had going for him was his height, and that he had only acquired in recent years, when his voice fell to its current smooth and low timbre, his chest broadened and his jaw shifted from smaller and rounder to longer and more angled. Put all this together and you got a boy whose self confidence was never really too high. He certainly did not feel like enough for Rey, in all her beauty.

 _Must stop thinking about her,_ Ben scolded himself as he wrenched the door open with a little more force than necessary, and stepped out onto the small step outside, shutting it behind him, and leaving behind the unappealing atmosphere of the house at the moment. He now stood in the pleasantly cool, nearly silent outdoors, next to the side of the house. Filling his lungs with the clean, refreshing night air, he looked up at the stars, of which there were plenty to be seen. He had always been thankful to live somewhere where you could always see so many. Of course, he wasn’t in any hurry to stick around once he did not have to anymore, but there was comfort for him in looking at the stars. All those nights he’d tramped into the backyard and lay flat on his back, crossing his arms behind his back, he could look up and feel less melancholy. Something about looking at the stars made your problems feel a little smaller. 

After a few moments of this, Ben stepped off the step and into the cool grass below, relishing the silence and the dark. His plan had been to sneak off, to go sit under the trees at the edge of their backyard, where it dropped off into the river. It was more appealing than sitting in his room, staring into the ceiling, being forced to hear the sounds of empty socialization below while confronted with his own thoughts that he did not want to deal with. 

He crept through the backyard, making sure to stay out of the sightline of the sliding doors of the house. Simply put, he did not want anyone to be seeing him, at that moment. Heading for the grove of trees, in the branches of which his old treehouse sat, he walked silently toward it. The trees above were tall, rising into the star-punctured sky and whispering quietly in the wind, sounding almost like voices. Ben slid under their shelter, flicking on his lantern, and realized a moment later that he was not alone. 

Standing there, previously hidden behind a tree, and facing the river, was a girl. A girl in a green jacket and a black dress, watching the moonlit river, her face turned up to the sky. A girl he very, very much did not want to see. Or did he?

His quick thinking plan to simply turn around and escape back into the house before she saw him was quickly squashed as she turned, looking for the source of the light. In the warm beam thrown out by the lantern, he could see the surprise in her wide eyes clearly. She had her hair pulled out of her face, showing off its aesthetically pleasing angles and lines. 

“What are you doing here?” he stammered, intensely surprised himself. 

“I came with my aunt,” she answered, blinking at him as he stood a few feet away, still frozen. 

“Oh. And you’re in the backyard.”

The reply was all that Ben could think to say. A thousand different things were floating through his head at the moment, chief among which was his own marvelling at her beauty in the night, and his feeling of intense awkwardness and embarrassment. 

She looked down at her feet a moment later, before glancing at the house and back at him.

“.... a lot on my mind. Are we going to talk, or are you going to run away again?” she asked quietly. Ben sensed a small degree of hurt in her guarded tone, his shame rising within him at it. He considered his options for a few silent moments. His own self loathing at hurting her feelings and his desire for self preservation, to keep himself removed from feelings like this, were at war.

In front of him, Rey waited.

“I’m sorry,” he finally spit out. It sounded mangled. 

“For what?”

He blinked at her. She regarded him with that same determined sort of look she’d given him at the party, her brows slightly furrowed, her full bottom lip, that he could not help but stare at, pushed out slightly.

“For kissing me, or leaving?” she reiterated. Tenseness returned to their interactions, as much as Ben did not want it too. 

“For…” he began, looking down at his boots. “Being an jerk, in general.” 

Still staring down at the ground, he reached down and put down his lantern, laying his sketchbook and pencils down in a neat pile beside it, still fighting the urge to run away. Not again, he told himself firmly. For once in his life, he’d have to face the music - as much as he did not want to deal with the things she made him think, how crazy she made him.

The truth was, close to nobody had ever paid so much attention to him in this way. No girl had ever made his feelings tumble around like a dryer like she had. The way she looked at him, the way she held herself. Everything about it was beyond anything Ben had ever let get close to him. Letting people get close to him was not something he ever was very good at. In fact, he avoided it at all costs. She had been the only one who ever made him rethink that, and he wished it wasn’t so.

When he looked at her again, he noted that her expression had softened. 

“Okay,” she began, taking a deep breath. “I just want you to be straight with me. Because I don’t really have the energy to deal with all this much longer.”

An ultimatum? Ben felt himself perspire slightly out of nervousness, aware of the fact that she was right. It was not fair to her for him to flip flop the way he had been doing so far, for her to be the victim of his own inner battles to stay detached.

She _had_ kissed him back, this was a thought he had only briefly allowed himself to enjoy. 

“I’m bad at talking about my feelings,” he stammered. She did not waver from her furrowed brows, but the corner of her mouth flicked up, to his surprise.

“What?” he asked, confused.

“You’re just…. a walking cliche!”

Ben’s brows furrowed. _Cliche?_ She was smiling to herself now, bashfully, looking away. He was not sure if to be offended or not. 

“Yeah…” he began awkwardly. “Weird, quiet type male who can’t get his head of out his ass.”

Her face softened, and she looked up at him again, brows knitted.

“I didn’t mean it like that… I just mean, just because you claim to be bad at it, doesn’t mean you can’t do it.”

She tucked a piece of hair back behind her ear, wrapping her slim arms around her frame slightly. Ben could not help to be confronted with the sight of the elegant angles of her tan neck, the gentle swells of her breasts beneath her dress and under her folded arms, the smoothness of her skin. He swallowed.

“What about you?” he asked finally, testily.

“What about me?” 

“You’re…. going on about feelings. I’m wondering, then, what yours are.”

It was a bold move. He realized only after he’d said it out how much of a cop out it was. She blinked at him, looking a little surprised. Ben did really want to know, thought.” 

“What I feel,” she began, defiantly, and as she continued, her speech sped up. “Is that there is a lot more to you than you let on. And you’re blocking me out, and if you just tell me to go away, I will, I can take a hint. But you kissed me, and it’s confusing.”

Ben was taken aback, ashamed simultaneously, of this truth. He blinked, staring at her, feeling a rush of emotions toward her, quite unlike anything he’d ever felt before. It invaded every part of his body, it made him feel warmth in his chest and across the back of his neck. 

“Do you want me to do it again?”

It fell out of his mouth before his brain could have a moment to thinking if letting forth this profoundly stupid statement was a good idea or not. She looked at him, surprised, her lips parting slightly.

It was true, he deeply, deeply wanted to feel his own on them again. He did not expect to, however. 

Looking down at her feet for a moment, she took a cautious step toward him, reaching up to lay a gentle hand on the side of his face, a guarded sort of look on her face and she stared deeply into his eyes. His gaze flicked from her hand, slim and tan, against his face, pale and long, to her eyes again. Gently, she pulled his face down, and brought her own up to it.

It was unlike their first kiss had been - hungry, unbridled, passionate, their hands grabbing at other’s bodies. This one was soft and tender, affectionate and warm. Almost without thinking of it, Ben gently placed his hands on her waist as he inhaled the flowery sort of scent on her.

They broke apart a few moments later. Rey looked down at his hands on her waist and up at his surprised face.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t being upfront earlier,” he started suddenly, the words tumbling out almost faster than he could process them. “I have obviously have massive issues about letting people in but I’m wildly attracted to you and you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen and I’m sorry for not treating you like you deserved earlier.”

She blinked at him after the little high speed speech, a look of surprise melting into a big smile, as she moved her hand up to run her fingers through his hair a bit, an immensely pleasing sensation.

“Thanks for telling me,” she said quietly, in amusement. “I knew you had it in you.”

Ben felt dazed, intoxicated on the sensation of the kiss, still half in disbelief about what was happening, his eyes looking past her as he blinked in surprise. She chuckled, hugging her arms around his chest and pressing herself to him. The sensation of her body against his own was not something he was used to, but something he was sure he could get used to. The feeling of her slim, warm body against his own made a very agreeable sort of zen euphoria come over his usual melancholy sort of disposition. A slow smile spread on his lips as he looked down at her head right under his own. He loved how it felt to hold his arms around her, a protective sort of feeling. Ben had never _held_ anyone before. 

“I like your haircut, by the way,” she said into his chest. Ben laughed. It was a full, happy laugh, one that he did not give frequently. It felt good coming out.

“Thanks,” he murmured, smiling. “You can thank my mom for that one, the one time I listen to her…”

He felt her chuckle under his arms too and she looked up, looking up at him with her big eyes, wistful, her lips parted slightly.

“You’re gorgeous,” he blurted out, unable to tear his eyes away. And he didn’t need to. She grinned at him, and then looked up into the trees above. He looked up too.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she replied, eyes sparkling mischievously. Realizing what she meant, he grinned too. 

Ben heard Rey laughing below as he quickly climbed the little wood and rope ladder to the treehouse, unable to stop himself from smiling. He reached up and muscled his way in, throwing the weight of his upper body up to enter, banging his stomach against the bottom of it as he did so. 

“Ow!” he groaned, crawling the rest of the way in and flopping onto his back, holding his pained midsection. He heard Rey laughing again as her head appeared in the entrance hole. She paused, holding the sides of the treehouse with her arms.

“You’re not that small anymore, remember?” she asked, grinning at his form lying in the small treehouse and sliding the big lantern in. More carefully than he, she pulled herself in, climbing in on her knees. Ben watched, a little breathless, and she crawled her way over till she was beside him, looking down. He could only blink, completely allured, as she reached a hand out and put it on his chest.

“You okay?” she asked, smiling crookedly and raising her eyebrows. 

“I’ll live,” he murmured, grinning. “Maybe... kiss me and make it better.” 

“Only if you agree to do more drawings of me and not squirrel them away.”

Ben laughed. 

“Sorry about that! I mean, yes, anything. Just give me a kiss.”

“Since you’re finally so open…”

Unable to take the anticipation any longer, Ben reached up and pulled her face down toward his own. His arms slid around her waist as the weight of her body pressed against his own, their kiss deepening and their embrace tightening. He shivered as he she moved one of her hands from holding onto his shoulder to burying into his hair, and how his own hands familiarized themselves with the curves in her shoulders and back.

Admittedly, when he’d first gotten this treehouse, he’d hardly have ever imagined something like this occurring within. If you had asked him three months ago if he could ever imagine it, he’d still call you crazy. Now, in that moment, Ben Solo felt unbridled happiness. That was something he had been denied for a very long time. And he never wanted to go back.

_One Month Later_

 

Rey Walker sat on the top of a picnic table near school. It was warm, very warm that day after school - she sat with her legs crossed in front of her and hanging off, her head tilted up toward the sun, its light making her tan skin look like it glowed. Her arms held up her weight behind her.

“Are you done?” she asked, breaking the silence but maintaining the slightly uncomfortable pose. On the bench next to the table, Ben was still scribbling in his small sketchbook, looking up every few moments to study in the curves in her face and torso as he sketched the pose.

“Almost!” he muttered, going back over some of his lines with a pencil. He was wearing a light blue button down shirt and sunglasses, and his hair was pushed back from his forehead in a neat, but effortless looking style. So unlike the shaggy haired, slightly hunching boy in all black that Rey had met those weeks and weeks ago, Ben looked at ease and confident as he sketched his pretty girlfriend. 

“Okay, you can relax now.”

Rey dropped her head and straightened back out, shaking out her hair and crossing and uncrossing her legs.

“Good?” she asked, tucking a bit of hair behind her ear.

“Always, always. I have you for a muse, what do you expect?”

She smiled into her lap, resting her hands on the side of the table. Ben stole the one of them closest to him for a moment, lifting it to his face and giving it a swift kiss, before returning to finishing off his sketch. She grinned, taking back her hand and laying it back down, as she looked out at the school grounds around her. Spring was in full force - flowered trees around the edges of the fields turned everything many bright colors. Rey had never seen spring in such a vegetation filled place. And it was very stunning. Everything was so green, so bright, beyond just the evergreens from early spring that she had first been greeted with.

Perhaps it was just her general happiness, but everything seemed especially alive today. The birds’ song in the trees, the crisp smelling, bright green grass - they all combined under the shining sun to make a positively stunning day. She sighed happily to herself.

“What is it?” Ben inquired from behind his sketchbook, hearing the sound.

“Oh, nothing,” she replied, smiling to herself. “Just thinking about spring. It’s so pretty here.”

Ben looked up at her and smiled brightly.

“I keep forgetting you’re from a desert planet…” he said with a chuckle, returning to his drawing. 

“Well, I’m happy I’m here now.”

He looked up again at her, a wistfulness about his expression.

“Me too.” he agreed softly. Rey, her good mood blossoming within her like one of the buds on the trees surrounding, leaned down and gave him a kiss on his forehead. Ben gave her a wry little smile and returned to his drawing.

She looked up the path, and saw the sight she had been waiting for - Poe and Finn, coming down the path. The two boys, handsome Poe with his t shirt that showed off his muscular arms and Ray-Bans, and cheerful Finn, with his camera slung round his neck, were holding hands, and the sight of it made Rey grin. She lifted her arm and waved brightly at the two of them coming down. It occurred to her that this had been close to exactly the setup of the afternoon where Finn had first told her about his complicated history with Poe, and how he felt about him then, angsty and dismissive about his feelings. And boy, how far they’d all come. 

“How about this day, huh?” Finn called, as the two of them approached. Rey looked up at the sky and smiled. 

“Nicer, now that you’re here,” she replied cheerfully as the two of them approach. Poe threw her a handsome, bright grin. 

“You’re making me blush,” he said. Finn gave him an amused look. 

“She was talking to me, buddy,” he told Poe with mock defensiveness. The boyish baseball star gave a shrug. 

“Close enough!”

Rey chuckled, covering her mouth behind her hand, as she observed the happy way they looked at one another. Everything was so properly aligned in their little world, it made her feel warm inside.

“Alright, who’s ready for milkshakes?” Finn asked the group at large, sounding upbeat. Ben, quiet till now, closed his sketchbook with a small thump and stuck his pencil into his back pocket.

“Good with me,” he said, pushing his hand through his hair and getting his feet, brushing off the legs of his jeans. He smiled at Rey and held out his big hand to her. She took one and slid off the table, then walked around the other end of the table to pick up her bag. As she finished sliding what she’d taken out of it earlier back in, she slung it around her shoulder and straightened up, then paused.

Rey looked at the three boys at the other end of the table. Ben, rising the tallest, looking dreamy in his button down shirt with his sketchbook in his hand, beside Finn, her best friend, fiddling with the camera around his neck as usual, and next to him, the golden boy, Poe, resting a hand in his jeans pocket. Seeing the three of them, who had more or less been on completely different corners of the Earth before she had arrived, standing beside one another like this, made her feel a certain brand of proud, sentimental happiness that she wished she could bottle up and hold next to her all the time. 

What?” Ben asked, after she had not moved. Rey broke into a big smile. 

“Oh, nothing.” she replied, walking back up to him. The group began down the big hill, their necks warm with the bright sun that teased summer, on the horizon. Rey looked above her. It was the same sun she had lived beneath in Arizona, of course. 

But this one felt so much better on her skin.


End file.
